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Chinese 
Christian Education 


A REPORT OF A CONFERENCE 
HELD IN NEW YORK CITY, 
~ APRIL 6th, 1925 


Under the Joint Auspices of the 
INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY COUNCIL 
and the 


FOREIGN MISSIONS CONFERENCE OF 
NORTH AMERICA 


25 MADISON AVENUE 
NEW YORK 
1925 





Copyrighted, 1925 
Foreign Missions Conference of North America 


INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 


The following pages contain the report of the ‘Conference 
on Christian Education in China held in New York City on 
April 6, 1925. The Conference adopted no resolutions, for its 
purpose was to secure information regarding the facts of the 
present situation in China and by free discussion to discover 
the meaning of the facts in their bearing upon the development 
of Christian education in China. In order that this informa- 
tion and the interpretation thereof may become more widely 
known, the Conference voted that a narrative of its discussions 
should be printed. 

Previous to the Conference, a collection of papers had been 
circulated among those who had indicated their intention to 
be present. These papers are also printed so that the reader 
may have the same amount of common knowledge regarding 
the recent developments in China with reference to Christian 
education that was possessed by those who took part in the 
discussions. It will be noted that these papers were written by 
persons in China who have first-hand knowledge of that of 
which they write. 

The reports: of >the” speeches by Mr. TI. Z. “Koo, Dr. 
E. D. Burton, Dr. Rawlinson, and Dr. Russell have been cor- 
rected by these speakers. It has been impossible to arrange for 
such corrected reports from all the other speakers. 

The limitations of space have made it necessary to condense 
much of the discussion, but the effort has been made to state 
the principal points that were made by each speaker. 

It is hoped that by printing this report it will be more pos- 
sible for those who are responsible for the policies and plans 
for the larger and more fruitful development of Christian 
Education in China to give thoughtful attention to the demands 
of the present situation in China. In that way the Conference 
will accomplish its real purpose in that, while it could not of 
itself initiate any action, it will have aided those who are in 
responsible positions to act promptly, sympathetically and 
intelligently. 

A. L. WarnsHults. 


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in 2022 with funding from 
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https://archive.org/details/chinesechristian0Oconf 


STATEMENTS DISTRIBUTED IN PREPARATION 
FOR THE CONFERENCE 


“Christian Education under Fire” 

(The following extracts are from Editorial Notes in the January, 1925, 
number of the “Educational Review” published by the China Christian 
Educational Association.) 

At the present time.Christian education in China is facing 
the most serious and widespread criticism in its history. From 
many parts of the country come reports of meetings held to 
protest against the Christian religion and the schools and col- 
leges which it supports. * * * * Back of it there appears 
to be, however, a very definite purpose and organization on the 
part of certain of the more radical of the young intellectuals of 
China. * * *° * We should not fail to study the criti- 
cisms that are leveled at us in order to discover what lessons we 
may learn from them. 


1. Asa Denationalizing Force 

Among the charges brought against the Christian school the 
most common is that it is a foreignizing institution, tending to 
weaken the patriotism of the students and to make them sub- 
servient to the sinister designs of foreign nations. * * * * 
The charge of using them as a “colonizing agency” is founded 
upon either ignorance or wilful misrepresentation. At the 
same time, we shall do well to restudy the situation and to see 
what more can be done to develop in our students an enlight- 
ened and unselfish interest in the practical problems of Chinese 
society. * * * * Again, the charge is made that Christian 
schools minimize the teaching of the Chinese language and exalt 
the English language and so tend to denationalize their students. 


2. As Imperialistic and Pacifist 

Another criticism that is leveled against us is that the teach- 
ing of Christianity is “imperialistic” and “capitalistic.” The 
criticism, if sincere, is due to a confusion between the principles 
of the Christian religion and certain practices of the so-called 
Christian nations. * * * * It is inconsistent that at the 
same time Christianity is being charged with being “pacifist,” a 
force which tends to weaken a proper patriotic spirit and so 


6 
expose China to the attacks, open or insidious, of her enemies. 
The facts point in quite the opposite direction. Christians are 
earnest patriots, even though their sympathies are wider than 
the bounds of their own country. 


3. As Setting Up a Rival System 


One of the most common criticisms at the present time is 
based upon a misunderstanding of the report of the China 
Educational Commission. The fact is, however, that the Edu- 
cational Commission, in what it says with reference to a system 
of Christian education, had reference not to the Christian 
schools vis-a-vis the government system, but to the Christian 
schools in their relationship one to the other. * * * * It 
was to enable the Christian schools to make a better contribu- 
tion to the education of the children of China that their co- 
ordination was urged as a prime essential to increased efficiency. 
* %* %*« * Tn no uncertain terms, the Commission stated its 
conviction that the Christian schools should be a part of the 
national system. 


4. As an Agency for Propagating Religion 


It is increasingly evident that one of the main causes con- 
tributing to the present agitation is a desire to “put religion in 
its place,” that is to say, to do away with it so far as possible. 
With the extremists, who hold this view, there can be, of course, 
no compromise. They believe that religion is a disintegrating 
force, both to the individual and the nation; we believe that it 
is the only force which ultimately unifies personality and enables 
a nation perfectly to realize itself. The raison d’etre of the 
Christian school in China is to provide for the children of the 
Christian community an education which makes adequate pro- 
vision for the religious viewpoint in education, and which 
endeavors to prove the value of religion as an educative force. 
Any attempt to prevent Christian schools from continuing their 
religious work could be met only by firm insistence on the fact 
that it is for this that our schools have been founded, and that 
it would be better to close our institutions than in any way to 
agree to give up their religious character. * * * * It is 
inconceivable that the responsible leaders of China will con- 
sent to such action as would violate the principle of re- 


pe 

ligious toleration, which has been accepted by the government. 
* * %* * There are, however, a few sincere people, within 
as well as without the Christian community in China, who, 
while believing in the value of religion, question that it has a 
place in the schools of a nation. They point to France, with 
her secular system, and to the almost entirely secular instruc- 
tion in the United States, and they ask whether China should 
not follow the example of those two republics of the west. 


5. As Undemocratic 


It is sometimes charged that it is undemocratic to allow any 
sections of a nation to send their children to other than the 
public schools. On the contrary, it is manifestly not in accord- 
ance with the spirit or practice of democracy to withhold from 
any group in a nation the right of giving their children a 
variant type of education, provided that it covers at least the 
minimum requirements of the public school system. * * * * 
Education always has to fight against a tendency toward a 
rigid adherence to standards and uniformity, a form of “intel- 
lectual Prussianism,” which is fatal to progress and to the devel- 
opment of the highest type of nationality which includes variety 
in unity. 


A Constructive “Apologetic” for Christian Education 


What should be the attitude of Christian leaders in face of 
these criticisms? * * * * Jn the first place, as we have 
already stated, it is the part of wisdom not to be stampeded by 
the violence or extensiveness of these attacks. We have more 
to fear from timorousness or lack of understanding of the 
situation among ourselves than from any attack from with- 
outy.* * * *  Wershouldesee;to nt that our ‘schools are 
free from the least suspicion of denationalizing or foreignizing 
tendencies. * * * * Careful statements should be pre- 
pared and widely disseminated throughout the country of the 
aims, methods and achievements of the Christian schools and 
colleges. * * * * We should endeavor to make the truly 
spiritual aspects of religion in our schools more vital and more 
controlling. 

In the “Cheloo Weekly Bulletin” (Shantung Christian Uni- 
versity) for December 13, 1924, in reply to the question, “What 


8 
will be the place of the Christian college and university in the 
time which is rapidly coming when China will be able to pro- 
vide all the educational facilities needed by her people?” the 
answer is given: 


“Tt is plain that its justification will rest upon its ability to 
demonstrate some contribution which is absolutely unique and for 
which China herself, with her characteristic national tolerance, 
will find a place. This contribution will not be a matter of west- 
ern science, nor even of the English language, for by that time 
these subjects will be amply cared for under the national educa- 
tional system of the country. It will be solely in the realm of 
religion that the uniqueness of this contribution will appear. 
meated with a vital, throbbing message of Christianity, so that 
additional religious courses to a government curriculum, or of 
religious services, whether compulsory or voluntary. The whole 
content of the university course of instruction must be per- 
meated with a vital, throbbing message of christianity, so that 
history becomes the faithful record of the pathway of God 
through the ages; so that natural science recaptures the old posi- 
tion accorded to it by the devout religious workers of the 
Middle Ages, who saw in every exact scientific principle the 
reflection of God’s unerring ways and demand for truth; so 
that medical education, from the study of biological processes 
and anatomical structure up to the latest technique of medical 
and surgical treatment, becomes nothing less than a reverent in- 
vestigation of the highest handiwork of God and a solemn 
discharging of a divine trust.” 


RESOLUTIONS REGARDING THE REGISTRA- 
TION OF SCHOOLS 


Adopted by the Third Annual Meeting of the National Association for 
e Advancement of Education 
Nanking, July 8, 1924 


1. That the government be asked carefully to determine 
regulations for the registration of schools, to be observed by 
all schools in the nation. 

2. That there be two classes of registration, A and B. All 
schools and institutions of similar character should without ex- 
ception be registered under class B. Those schools that comply 
with the minimum government requirements as to curriculum, 
and which on inspection show nothing out of harmony with the 
form of government and national spirit of China, may be reg- 
istered as class A. 

3. That students in schools that are not registered in class 
A be denied the special privileges accorded to those in class A 
schools. 

4. That all foreigners using schools as means of aggression, 
when this is proved by inspection, should be restrained by the 
government. 


NOTE: The National Association for the Advancement of Education 
is a voluntary association of those who are interested in education. 
These resolutions, therefore, are recommendations to the Board of Edu- 
cation in Peking, and cannot come into effect until they have been for- 
mally adopted by the Board. 


NATIONAL FEDERATION OF PROVINCIAL 
EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS ANNUAL 
MEETING, KAIFENG, OCT., 1924 


RESOLUTION VII 


The Control of Education in China That Has Been Maintained 
by Foreigners 


1. Reasons for Action. 

Many evil effects have resulted from the maintenance of edu- 
cation in China by foreigners. Four outstanding ones are to 
be noted. 

1. Education is the most important function of the civil ad- 
ministration of a nation. Foreigners have come to China and 
freely established schools without having them registered or 


10 
examined by the Chinese authorities. This is an interference 
with the educational rights of the nation. 

2. Each nation has its own policy for the education of its 
people. The racial characteristics and national ideals of for- 
elgners are different from those of our country. For them to 
control our education causes many difficulties, and it is contrary 
to our own educational principles. 

3. The educational work done by foreigners in China looks 
like charity, but it is really in effect a form of “colonization.” 
Students who have received education from Japanese, British. 
Americans, French or Germans, will learn to love those nations 
and so will lose the spirit of national independence. This will 
injure the patriotic ideals of Chinese students. 

4. If we investigate the content of their work we will find 
that most of the foreigners who are doing educational work 
in China usually have as their purpose either religious propa- 
ganda, or political aggression. Education is simply a supple- 
mentary matter to them. They organize the school systems 
and the curricula in their own way, without any attempt to 
come up to the standards that have been established by the 
nation. 


II. Proposals. 


For these reasons the control of education by foreigners 
should be immediately and strictly limited, as follows: 

(1) All schools and other educational enterprise established 
by foreigners should be reported and registered with the gov- 
ernment. 

(2) The registration of schools established by foreigners 
should depend upon the fulfilment of conditions stated in the 
educational laws and regulations of both the central and local 
governments. 

(3) All schools established by foreigners should be under 
the supervision and inspection of the local authorities. 

(4) Teachers who are serving in the schools established by 
foreigners should have the qualifications described in the edu- 
cational laws of China. 

(5) Tuition fees charged by the schools established by 
foreigners should be in accordance with the regulations of the 
Peking Board of Education. These schools should not charge 


11 
higher tuition than other private schools in the same district 
or province. 

(6) Students of schools which have not been registered 
with the government should not enjoy rights and privileges 
enjoyed by students of government schools. 

(7) Schools which are not qualified to register with the 
government should be closed after a certain period. 

(8) All celebrations and ceremonies in schools established 
by foreigners should conform to the regulations of the govern- 
ment. 

(9) Foreigners must not use their schools or other educa- 
tional enterprises to propagate religion. 

(10) All schools and other educational enterprises con- 
ducted by foreigners should be transferred to Chinese control 
after a certain length of time. 

(11) From the time of the announcement ofthese regula- 
tions foreigners should not be allowed to start any new educa- 
tional enterprise. 

RESOLUTION XXIII 

No Religious Work Should be Allowed to be Done in the Schools 

Various subjects of study have been incorporated in the 
school curricula with the purpose of training the student to 
have a strong personality and a democratic spirit. Recently 
many persons have utilized their schools for religious purposes, 
enforcing compulsory religious teaching and worship; thus the 
educational aims have been lost and many social troubles have 
been caused. For the benefit of society and the improvement 
of education schools should be required to have no religious 
teaching of any kind. 

1. Preaching, religious teaching, and worship should not be 
permitted in the schools. 

2. The educational authorities should look after this matter : 
if any registered schools have religious practices,-they should 
either lose the privileges of registration or be required to close. 

3. A school should treat all teachers and students alike. 


(NOTE: This Federation of Provincial Educational Associations has 
previously greatly influenced the policies of the National Board of Edu- 
cation. It is uncertain, however, what action, if any, will be taken by 
that Board in this case, because these resolutions go beyond the ordinary 
province of the Department of Education. They are significant as they 
undoubtedly express the feeling of a large number of Chinese educators 
throughout the country.) 


ANTI-CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT IN CHINA 
By DR. HAROLD BALME 
President Shantung Christian University 

The Anti-Christian Movement, which is at present taking 
place in China, and which has been characterized by disturb- 
ances in various sections, presents a problem that must claim 
the attention of all interested in the missionary enterprise in 
that country. The actual form which the Movement is at 
present taking is not necessarily to be regarded as anything 
of a permanent nature, but the real importance of the Move- 
ment lies in the undercurrent of public opinion of which those 
sporadic outbursts are but the superficial eddies. 

In preparation for the proposed Conference, I have been 
requested to draw up a statement with reference to the causes 
which have led up to this Movement, and its possible effect 
upon Mission policy. I am very glad to respond to that re- 
quest, though I cannot claim that my observations of the situa- 
tion are necessarily accurate or that the inferences which I 
have drawn from it will be justified by the course of events. 
I can merely offer these personal opinions as a contribution 
to the wider discussion which will take place. 


De CONTRIBUTING GAGSES 


The underlying causes which have led up to the Anti-Chris- 
tian Movement may be regarded from three standpoints: 

1. The Growth of Political Feeling. During the past four- 
teen years since the Republic was established in China there 
has been a steady growth of political opinion in the country, 
and although the present political situation is in some senses 
more chaotic and more hopeless than it has appeared since 
the days of the Tsing dynasty, there are certain elements in 
the situation which are becoming increasingly clear year by 
year, and it is these factors which are probably affecting Chi- 
nese thought to an extent that we have hitherto failed to appre- 
ciate. They may be briefly summarized as follows: 

(a) A Decline of Prestige of the Western Powers. The 
outbreak of the world war and all the events which led up to 
China’s participation in the conflict, had a profound effect on 
her attitude toward Western nations, and the events which 
followed the Armistice, and in particular the terms of the 


13 
Treaty of Versailles, all contributed to the lowering of Western 
prestige in the minds of the educated classes. Prior to this, 
the victory of Japan in the Russian-Japanese war and the 
gradual decline in authority of some of the European nations, 
coupled with an increasing suspicion of the foreign policy of 
others, assisted in this change of attitude which has been so 
evident during the past two or three years. The very fact 
that the Western powers today are finding it increasingly diffi- 
cult to assert their authority at Peking testifies to the change 
which has arisen in the situation. 

(b) The Growth of Nationalism. Whilst on the one hand 
the political influence of the West has been declining in the 
Orient, there has been a marked growth of Nationalistic senti- 
ment. This has been partly spontaneous, and partly a reflex 
of what ‘has been taking place in India and Japan. Although 
still divided by a marked provincialism, China is increasingly 
beginning to think in national terms, and never more so than 
when she regards herself the object of attack or exploitation 
by one or the other of the Western powers. 

(c) Reflex Effect of a Weak Central Government. It is 
a strange phenomenon, but the irritation of the Chinese people 
toward Western Governments has appeared to grow in pro- 
portion to the weakness of her own central government within 
the last four or five years. This is possibly to be accounted 
for by the unfortunate and often contemptuous attitude which 
is taken by Western nationals and which has been seen in the 
dictatorial articles of the English and American press in 
China; the actions taken by the various Chambers of Com- 
merce (particularly at the time of the Lincheng affair); and 
the various references to China in Western lands. It is prob- 
ably true of all of us that we are more ready to accept advice 
and criticism when our affairs are more or less prosperous 
than during a period when we are admittedly in an unsatisfac- 
tory condition, and unfortunately the tone in which such advice 
and criticism are offered to China often leaves very much to be 
desired. 

(d) The Influence of Communism. It is difficult to say 
to what extent Soviet propaganda is spreading in China and 
still more difficult to say whether or not such propaganda is 


14 

actually subsidized from Russia, although there appears good 
reason to believe that this may be the case. It is, however, 
an undoubted fact that the influence of Communistic doctrine 
is spreading in China, and Dr. Sun Yat Sen and others have 
been on the friendliest terms with these propagandists. The 
particular line of attack which the various Communistic socie- 
ties in China have developed is directed against the so-called 
imperialistic and capitalistic tendencies of the Christian move- 
ment. A large number of pamphlets and other forms of lit- 
erature have been brought out by these societies, and are in- 
creasingly being used on the occasion of large Christian 
conferences and the like. 

(e) Education Regarded as the Sole Political Hope. It is 
a very significant fact (and may possibly throw some light 
upon the selection of the mission schools and colleges as the 
main object of opposition) that within the last few years the 
student classes of China have more and more come to feel that 
the only hope of stabilizing the political situation of China 
lies in the wide-spread development of popular education, rather 
than in revolutionary methods or patriotic processions. The 
great impetus which has been given during the last two years 
to support the efforts for the establishment of night-schools, 
the teaching of the one thousand characters, etc., etc., is largely 
due to this cause. In this way political feeling has been linked 
with a new sense of responsibility for the spread of education 
and with a desire to use such education as a means for welding 
the whole country together and fitting it for its national tasks. 


2. Educational Development. The past ten years have 
witnessed a remarkable progress in the educational development 
of China, and it is very encouraging to note that, whilst the 
country has been divided politically into a large number of 
different factions, the strongest unifying force in the land has 
been that of education. The conferences which have been 
held year by year have gathered together educators from every 
province in China, and political feelings have never been 
allowed to interfere with the matters under debate. In con- 
sidering the bearing of these developments upon the spread 
of the Anti-Christian Movement, the following ‘BOWES must be 
remembered : 


15 

(a) The Growth in the Number and Influence of Modern 
Trasned Christian Educators. But a few years ago it was prob- 
ably true to say that the majority of educationists in China, 
whose training had been along modern Western lines, were 
connected in one way or another with Christian colleges and 
movements. That day has long since passed. Today some 
of the strongest educational institutions in the country are 
entirely unconnected with the missionary enterprise, and only 
a comparatively small minority of Chinese leading education- 
ists are now to be found upon the staff of the missionary 
colleges and schools. The activities of the various educational 
societies of China are to be seen in the excellent conferences 
which they now organize, the text-books which they are in- 
creasingly beginning to publish, and the institutes, summer 
schools, etc., which are being developed. 


(b) The Sense of Potentiality on the Part of the Chinese 
Educationalists. Dr. Paul Monroe, on the occasion of his visit 
to China last Autumn, stated that the two elements in the edu- 
cational situation of China in which he noticed the greatest 
change since his visit of three years previously were: firstly, 
the growth of Anti-Christian sentiment on the part of educa- 
tional leaders, and secondly, their new sense of potentiality. 
In spite of the fact that both government and private schools 
have been crippled for finances, and that the whole country 
has been unsettled, Dr. Monroe and other educational experts 
have all noted this growing sense of confidence on the part of 
the Chinese educators with reference to their ability to develop 
a sound educational system for their country. As soon as 
political conditions become quieter, and more adequate resources 
are available for educational development, there will probably 
be a marked and rapid development in government and private 
schools, wise preparations for which are already being made. 


(c) Suspicion of Motivation of Western Education in 
China. However much we may deplore the fact, it is unde- 
niable that Christian education, insofar as it is subsidized and 
staffed by the West, is under suspicion today in China. There 
are various causes which have led to this state of things: the 
policy of “peaceful penetration” on the part of Japan in con- 
nection with the development of schools, etc., in Manchuria; 


16 

the fact that before the World War the German government 
was proposing to subsidize German mission schools in China 
for the direct purpose of spreading German “kultur” and bene- 
fiting German trade; the action of the Associated British Cham- 
bers of Commerce in contributing a large sum of money toward 
British schools and hospitals; and the widespread apprehension 
as to the possible use that will be made of the released Boxer 
indemnity funds. These and similar events have all helped to 
produce an attitude of suspicion on the part of leading Chinese 
as to the true motives underlying such an investment of men 
and money in educational enterprises in China. This suspicion 
has manifested itself in a double line of attack upon mission 
schools, partly political and partly anti-religious. 

3. Religious Situation. There are two factors in the re- 
ligious situation in China which, although diametrically opposed, 
have a possible bearing on the development of the Anti-Chris- 
tian Movement. The first of these is the growing sense of 
independence of the Chinese Christian church, many members 
of which are becoming more and more restive under the re- 
straints of missionary organizations. There is a strong feeling 
on the part of many Chinese Christians today that both Mis- 
sion Boards and Missions are regarding their trusteeship of 
funds in a way that is liable to cripple the development of a 
strong and healthy indigenous church in China. On the other 
hand, there is also an Anti-Religious Movement in China, 
which is at present directed far more against the Western 
character of the Christian enterprise than against Christianity 
as such. Both of these factors may have some influence on 
the development of this Movement. 


II. MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MOVEMENT 


On the surface, the chief form in which the Anti-Christian 
Movement is at present manifesting itself is that of incitement 
to disturbances in schools and colleges and in the effort to 
induce the central government to insist upon a large measure 
of control of all mission schools and colleges and the elimina- 
tion of all forms of religious propaganda. Far more signifi- 
cant, however, is the attitude of the educated classes toward 
the spread of Christian education. This is not an attitude of 
actual hostility so much as a legitimate desire to see all forms 


17 

of education in the country conforming to a single system 
amenable to the government educational authorities. However 
we may interpret the actions which have been taken by the 
educational conferences, the fact remains that they represent 
a strong body of opinion which is challenging the right of 
mission schools to protect themselves behind special treaties 
obtained from China as the result of military defeat, and to 
regard themselves as being in consequence outside the ordinary 
laws of the land. It is probably only fair to say that these 
critics have failed to appreciate the efforts which have been 
made by many of these institutions to secure government rec- 
ognition on condition of conformity with government regula- 
tions, nor the obstacles which have been put in their way by 
the authorities of the central Board of Education. We must, 
however, be prepared for some action in the near future which 
will challenge the preferential treatment which is at present 
given to mission schools and colleges in allowing them to oper- 
ate without registration or without any regard to the educa- 
tional requirements of the country. 


Ills “ATTITUDE OF THE BOARDS OF MISSIONS 


I would like to suggest the following points as worthy of 
special consideration in view of the situation above described: 

1. The Mission Boards at the home base and those of us 
who are connected in this work in China need to exercise infi- 
nite patience and imagination during these next few years, 
as it is almost inevitable that difficulties will arise in this period 
of transition. It is perhaps well for us to remember that what 
has happened in China is only what most of us would ourselves 
do under the same circumstances, and that while the anti- 
foreign and anti-Christian elements are unfortunate and embar- 
rassing, they are not necessarily a permanent feature in the 
‘Movement. The fact that China is demonstrating her ability 
and desire to work out her own educational problems with 
efficiency and good hope of success is one that gives satisfac- 
tion and encouragement to all interested in her progress, and 
although the immediate stage may be somewhat difficult, every- 
thing will depend on the patience and sympathy with which 
we act. 

2. The orientation of our educational policy to the Chinese 


18 

viewpoint is an urgent question. Anything that we can do, as 
those responsible for missionary educational work, in the direc- 
tion of securing larger powers of field administration, ccn- 
formity with government regulations, and the appointment of 
an increasing number of Chinese members of the Boards of 
Management and Chinese administrative officers will be of 
infinite value at this time. <A policy of drift or of waiting 
upon events would be most unfortunate. 

3. Greater care than ever is needed in the selection of the 
particular type of missionaries who will be sent to China during 
the next decade. Apart from a vital Christian life and a keen 
sense of vocation there is nothing more important than a 
capacity to learn from other races and to regard the whole 
Christian enterprise in China from the point of view of the 
Chinese themselves. . 

4. Lastly, I would like to suggest that what we need to 
do today is not to call attention to our rights, whether those 
of the extra-territoriality or those inherent in our investment 
of missionary capital, but rather to make ourselves indispen- 
sable in China by the high educational standards which we set, 
the efficiency of our educational institutions and the strongly 
Christian character which we impart to our graduates. It is 
just in so far as these men and women are seen to be strong 
and public spirited lovers of their country, while at the same 
time possessors of earnest Christian character, that the pres- 
ence of the mission school and college will be justified. 

New York, March 5, 1925. 


TENTATIVE FINDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE 
OF CHINESE ADMINISTRATORS IN CHRISTIAN 
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 
Held in Shanghai, January 15-17, 1925 

Preamble 

We, the undersigned, called together by the Secretary of 
the Council of Higher Education of the China Christian Educa- 
tional Association to consider the problems confronting 
Christian higher education today, after frankly facing the de- 
velopments within Christian circles and in the nation at large, 
and also the situation that has arisen owing to the recent criti- 
cisms of Christian education, welcome this opportunity of re- 


19 
cording our conviction that Christian education in China can 
make its distinctive contribution only as it becomes “More 
Chinese, more efficient, and more Christian.” 


More Chinese 


We rejoice in the beginnings that are being made in malking 
Christian higher educational institutions in China not only 
places of interpreting that which is best in the Western civiliza- 
tion but also centers of China’s own culture. To further this 
purpose it is important that emphasis should be laid upon train- 
ing men and women to be worthy citizens of the Republic of 
China, with accurate knowledge and true appreciation of 
China’s culture, and ability and skill to apply it to the needs of 
modern life. 


For this reason and also because Christian higher education 
exists for providing China with Christian leadership, and be- 
cause the responsibility for maintaining and promoting such 
education must ultimately rest with the Chinese, it would be 
wise to begin now to place more and more qualified Chinese in 
positions of administrative responsibility. 

Furthermore, we deem it advisable that an increasing num- 
ber of well-qualified Chinese from the alumni and from among 
the friends of Christian education should be added to the 
boards of control in China which are responsible for the deter- 
mination of the policies of these institutions. We deem it 
advisable that the Chinese membership of these boards should 
be large enough to guarantee that the best Chinese judgment 
is secured, 


More Efficient 


We feel that it is necessary to place even more emphasis 
upon the teaching of Chinese in Christian colleges and univer- 
sities. As very few of the college students have been adequately 
prepared along the line of Chinese studies in the middle schools, 
it would be wise for the Christian college curriculum to insist 
on, at least, certain minimum requirements in Chinese studies 
in the colleges. These should include: 

1. Ability to write Chinese correctly. 
2. Ability to express the content of a college educa- 
tion in Chinese. 


20 

3. Genuine appreciation of China’s culture and lit- 
erary heritage. 

In order to meet these minimum requirements it is neces- 
sary to have adequate courses on the Chinese language, litera- 
ture, history, and philosophy under competent Chinese in- 
structors. 

While our ultimate aim is to use Chinese as the medium of 
instruction, yet during this period of transition it is necessary 
for various reasons to give instruction in many subjects 
through the medium of English. We deem it advisable, save 
for exceptional cases, that: 

1. The foreign instructors should use English as the 
medium of instruction. 

2. That the Chinese instructors should use Chinese 
as the medium of instruction. 

3. That in filling vacancies on the faculties, other 
things being equal, preference should be given to 
qualified Chinese who are skilled in using Chinese 
as the medium of instruction. 

4. That in order to make possible the fullest coopera- 
tion between the Chinese and foreign members 
on the faculty, in the employment of teachers of 
the Department of Chinese, other things being 
equal, preference should be given to those who 
possess a working knowledge of English. 


In order that Christian institutions may maintain their proper 
position at this time when academic standards are steadily 
rising, it is necessary that facilities should be provided and 
conditions made possible for the development of the members 
of the teaching staff in these institutions, both foreign and 
Chinese, toward the attainment of intellectual leadership. 
More Christian 

We wish to affirm our conviction of the supreme value of 
religion in developing character and our belief that here 
especially a Christian institution makes its distinctive contri- 
bution to China. Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon 
religious education, and it is essential that this should be given 
in such a way as to achieve its best results. To this end we 
suggest the need for: 


21 

1. Adequate provision for such worship as will meet 
the needs of Chinese life. 

2. Carefully selected and well-organized courses in 
religious studies that will give the students an ade- 
quate appreciation of our Christian heritage. 

3. Consecrated and scholarly instructors who will 
impart to the students the Christian spirit and 
association with whom will help form in them true 
Christian character. 

While we desire to see each of our students brought under 
direct Christian influence through worship, religious instruc- 
tion and association with Christian teachers, it is our con- 
viction that this end can best be achieved not by depending 
upon compulsion in attendance at the religious services and 
the religious instruction, but by making the services and instruc- 
tion so vital that the same end will be achieved through volun- 
tary attendance. 

Furthermore we deem it necessary that each institution 
should in addition have a well-qualified person whose primary 
responsibility is to the religious life of the students. 


Special Problems of Relationship 


Since the Chinese and western members of the staff are 
dedicated to the same purpose and share the same responsi- 
bility we deem it necessary that a sense of common pro- 
prietorship should be cultivated by the following means: 

1. A natural open-minded and friendly attitude one 
to another. 

2. Facilities for closer social intercourse and spiritual 
fellowship. 

3. Provision without distinction of nationality for 
salary, residence, children’s allowance, insurance, 
traveling expenses, and medical attendance, all of 
which are to be determined by a proper system 
of ranking based on qualifications and service. 

Since Christian higher educational institutions were estab- 
lished and maintained for the service of the Chinese nation, 
they should have their recognized place in the Chinese educa- 
tional system. We believe that the time has come that steps 


22 
should be taken to secure recognition through the registration 
of the institutions with the Chinese Government authorities, 
provided that the terms of registration do not prejudice our 
Christian purpose. 

Since a spirit of unity and practice in cooperative under- 
takings is essential to the development of democratic citizens 
we deem it advisable that there should be held a daily assem- 
bly, attendance on which should be required of all students. 


Timothy T. Lew S. K. Wei Herman Liu 
William Hung Sanford C. C. Chen King Chu 
BaGesyen Wie lee Lao hehe 
Chang Fu-liang C. Y. Cheng Li Tianlu 
Francis Wei C. W. Luh (bac, Ghao 
CoGe Chen Andrew Wu 


STATEMENT BY DR. PAUL MONROE, SHANGHAI, 
JANUARY 17, 1925: 


Private Schools in China.—There is a larger aspect of this 
question of the place to be accorded to private schools, that is, 
its bearing on the whole Chinese people. Progress comes by 
variation and selection. Without this there is no growth. Com- 
petition between Christian and other private schools and gov- 
ernment schools is healthy for the government schools. If the 
stimulus of individual endeavor is removed, government edu- 
cation will suffer. At the present time the greatest stimulus to 
government education in China is mission education from 
abroad. The time will come when it will be recognized that this 
has been the fundamental factor that has set government edu- 
cation on its feet. It would be disastrous to government edu- 
cation to remove this stimulus. 

Japan has come to recognize this value which comes from 
variant types of education and has reversed its former attitude 
toward private education. It now gives a very large margin 
of freedom to it. 

Those who, at the present time, are agitating for the eliminat- 
ing of Christian schools are unknowingly working for the cur- 
tailment and limitation of the very thing they desire; that is 
the development of government education. Any repressive, un- 
democratic, illiberal action curtailing the legitimate function 
of these schools is apt to return as a boomerang upon govern- 


23 

ment schools by an illiberal partisan government of the future. 
The most that should be asked is the adoption of a minimum 
governmental curriculum, the attainment of a government stan- 
dard of efficiency in carrying out the program and the right of 
visitation to see that such standards are obtained. Beyond this 
there should be freedom. Such freedom will redound to the 
benefit of government schools as well as to private enterprise. 


EXTRACT FROM A LETTER BY DR. ROBT. E. SPEER, 
FEBRUARY 18, 1925: 


There is one matter referred to in Dr. Balme’s statement 
about which I should like to say a word. I have again and 
again seen it intimated that some years ago the mission schools 
in Japan were required by the Japanese Government, in order 
to secure certain privileges, to give up their required religious 
teaching and chapel. The facts about the matter are these: I 
know because I have all the correspondence on the subject, and 
acted as the convener of the mission boards which were carry- 
ing on educational work in Japan, and which came together 
here to determine what their policy in the matter would be. 


It was at the time when there was a disposition in Japan to 
pursue a very tight educational policy and it’ was proposed that 
any schools which desired to enjoy the exemption of its stu- 
dents up to a certain age from military conscription and 
the privilege of passing its students on into the next higher 
grade of Government school would be obliged, in order to 
secure Government recognition, to conform absolutely to 
government regulations and to exclude religious teaching from 
the regular curriculum, and also, of course, chapel service. 
As a matter of fact the privilege of passing students on into 
the government schools was more or less imaginary, inasmuch 
_as the applicants for admission outnumbered the capacity of 
the schools and, as I remember, all students had to take exam- 
inations and not even all who passed them could be admitted. 
Whether this is correct or not, however, the Mission schools de- 
clined to conform in this way. So long as they were allowed 
to continue at all they preferred to continue with religious teach- 
ing and without the Government privileges. Only one denomina- 
tion, I think, of those carrying on higher education yielded. The 


24 


others all stood together. Whether as a result of this or be- 
cause of a general liberalizing tendency and other influences, 
the Mission schools were within a few years given all the 
privileges without any surrender of their religious teaching or 
Christian character. 


I have heard the Japanese situation cited a number of times 
as a justification for our yielding to pressure in India to ex- 
clude religious teaching from the regular required curriculum 
of the Mission Schools. It seems to me the Japanese experi- 
ence suggests the opposite conclusion. 


The principle of equality and reciprocal rights of which so 
much is made in China today is the principle that supports the 
right of private schools to exist on their own merits, and to 
teach religion. Any Confucianist or Buddhist could come over 
here and establish a school and teach Confucianism or Buddhism 
in it and require that pupils who came to the school should take 
those courses. 

SYLLABUS 


I. What are the important facts of the present situation in China relat- 
ing to Christian education? 


1. Are we right in thinking that the Anti-Christian Movement 
has spent its force so far as it expresses itself in violent 
action? Have the school strikes, the resolutions of educa- 
tional associations, and the other manifestations been the ex- 
pression of a persistent underlying opposition to Christian 
schools and colleges? 

a. What are the real aims, the inspiring motives of such 
opposition? What are the sources of and reasons for 
such opposition ? 

b. Towards what points in the life and work of the Church 
is it directing its attack? 

c. Against what grades and types of education is this 
opposition directed? 

d. Is the opposition anti-Christian or anti-religious? 
Anti-foreign? 

2. What are the present day tendencies in Chinese education? 


II. What are the opinions of Christian Chinese leaders regarding Chris- 
tian educational work? 


1. Both favorable and unfavorable opinions concerning : 
The organization of our schools and colleges? 
The development and use of Chinese teachers? 
The study of Chinese language and history? 
Introducing Western ideas and systems? 
Encouraging national loyalty? 
Developing leaders in the state and business? 
2. What is the purpose of Christian education in China? 
a. Is it to train workers for the Christian Church and 
leaders in the Christian community ? 


1 Slt SO Bach op 


b. 


Cc. 


Zo 


Is it also to train leaders for the new China? 

In what sense and how are Christian schools and col- 
leges intended to be agencies for the propagation of 
Christianity ? 


III. What ought to be done? 
1. To make Christian Education more Chinese? 


a. 


g. 
h. 


How transfer more responsibility and authority to 
Boards of Managers in China? How secure a larger 
representation of Chinese on such Boards? 

How relate the Christian schools and colleges so that they 
may be recognized as integral parts of the system of 
Chinese education? How disprove the charge that those 
institutions are “foreign” and “imperialistic” and show 
them to be truly “national” ? 

How develop larger financial support from Chinese 
sources? 

How increase the number of well- qualified Chinese 
teachers on the faculties and strengthen Chinese ele- 
ments in the curricula and text books? 

In what parts of the curricula should we expect the 
government to require a minimum standard? e. g., na- 
tional language, literature, geography, history, periodical 
inspection, minimum standard of efficiency. 

Is it right for Christian educational institutions to 
pate treaty rights in order to maintain religious free- 
om 

How may we aid the Chinese Church in maintaining 
religious freedom in private schools? 

How far should Christian schools and colleges *conform 
with government requirements ? Registration ? 


2. To make Christian education more efficient ? 


a. 


b. 


Is it spread out too thin? How may right concentration 
be effected? 

(1) By definition of functions and allocation of 

departments in different universities? 

(2) By developing relatively fewer institutions ? 
How may we act together ? 
Is it not desirable to realize without further delay the 
plans for the Permanent Committee for the Coordination 
and Promotion of Christian Higher Education in China? 
What is the present status of those plans, and what 
needs to be done? 
How may the efficiency be increased in other ways? 
More teachers? Better teachers? More money? Bet- 
ter administration? 


3. To make Christian education more religious? 


a. 


Can or should religious instruction be optional for the 
student, while maintaining the essential Christian char- 
acter and influence of the education? 
How improve the quality of religious teaching? 

(1) Teachers, (2) Chaplain, (3) Worship. 
How distinguish between western civilization and Chris- 
tianity? 
How develop a strong Christian ministry and strengthen 
the Church in China? 


CONFERENCE ON 
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN CHINA 
25 Madison Avenue, New York City 
April 6, 1925 
Three sessions of the Conference were held, beginning at ten 
o’clock in the forenoon and ending at nine-thirty in the evening. 


By appointment of the Committee on Arrangements, the 
Rev. J. H. Franklin, D. D., was Chairman throughout the 
Conference. , 

At the beginning of the forenoon session, the Conference 
united in a service of intercession, and in the course of the day 
from time to time, at the invitation of the Chairman, the Con- 
ference united in prayer. 

The Conference was attended by persons who represented 
practically all the missionary societies in the United States and 
Canada who are working in China. There were also present 
members of the Boards of Trustees of most of the Union 
Mission Colleges and Universities in China. Among the mis- 
sionaries present were the following: Mrs. Lawrence Thurs- 
ton, of Ginling College; Dr. Robt. Fitch, of Hangchow College; 
J. M. Henry, of Canton Christian College; John A. Ely, Dean 
of Arts, St. Johns University; Dr. John Gowdy and Prof. 
C. M. Lacey Sites, of Fukien; H. W . Luce, of Yenching 
University; H. C. Brownell, of Canton Christian Col- 
lege; Miss Nina D. Gage, of Yale-in-China; Dr. Wm. E. 
Hoy, of Yochow, Human; Nicolai, Kiaer, of the Y. M. C. A. in 
Changsha; Rev. Frank Rawlinson, Editor of “Chinese Re- 
corder”; Dr. A. K. Reischauer, of Japan; Rev. J. C. R. Ewing, 
D.D., K.C.1.E., formerly of India; Dr. O. R. Avison, of Korea. 
Dr. Ernest D. Burton and Prof. W. F. Russell, of the Educa- 
tional Commission to China, were also present. From Great 
Britain the following were present: Dr. H. H. Weir, Secre- 
tary of the Medical Department of the Society for the Propa- 
gation of the Gospel; Mr. F. H. Hawkins, Secretary of the 
London Missionary Society; Dr. Arnold Ingle, representing the 
Baptist Missionary Society; Miss C. M. Robertson, of the 
London Missionary Society, a missionary teacher in Shanghai. 


27 
A special welcome was given to the Chinese who were present, 
and they were urged to speak freely in all the discussions. 
They were Miss Ting Shu Ching, Secretary of the Y. W. C. A.; 
Rev. P. Lindel Tsen, of Wuhu; Mr. T. T. Ko, of Canton 
Christian College, and Mr. T. Z. Koo, Secretary of the World’s 
Student Christian Federation. 

Reference was made to the fact that Dr. John R. Mott 
had planned to attend the Conference, but had been prevented 
from doing so by the death of his sister. By vote of the Con- 
ference, a telegram of sympathy was sent to him. 

In an opening statement, the Chairman explained that the 
Conference was held under the auspices of the International 
Missionary Council and the Foreign Missions Conference of 
North America. A Committee of Arrangements had been 
appointed by the Committee of Reference and Counsel, which 
was composed of himself as Chairman, Miss Margaret Hodge, 
Dr. James Endicott, Dr. Eric North, Dr. G. T. Scott, Mr. 
Leslie B. Moss, Secretary of the Committee of Reference and 
Counsel, and Dr. A. L. Warnshuis, Secretary of the Inter- 
national Missionary Council. : 


The Chairman also referred to the widespread interest that 
had been manifested in this Conference. This interest shown 
by the boards, missionaries and others seemed to him to in- 
dicate an appreciation of the importance of the developments 
taking place in China. 


He then explained that the primary purpose of the Con- 
ference was to secure information regarding the facts of the 
present situation in China and by free discussion to study the 
meaning of these facts. The Committee of Arrangements, 
therefore, suggested that the Conference should not attempt 
to adopt any “findings,” but that a résumé or narrative of the 
discussions should be prepared. 


A number of papers had been circulated in advance of the 
meeting to all those present, and had given all a common basis 
of knowledge. The current number of the International Re- 
view of Missions also contained an article on the subject by 
Mr. T. Z. Koo. The Committee had prepared a Syllabus of 
questions as an outline to be followed in the discussions and 
they had asked Dr. Warnshuis and Dr. Eric North to go 


28 
through all the material that had come from China and to 
give the Conference a résumé of that information. 


CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 
OC LLEN AL 
A. L. Warnshuis 

In opening the discussion, before taking up the syllabus 
that we have before us, the Committee have requested me to 
make a brief statement that will remind us of the history of 
Christian Education in China and of some of the contributions 
that Christian schools and colleges have made to Chinese edu- 
cation. I shall not attempt to make an address on that sub- 
ject, or even to give you a complete outline of such an address. 
I shall only mention a few of the headings of some paragraphs 
that might have a place in such a review. All of you will be 
able to fill in the subject matter, and many who are here will 
think of other topics that might be named. 

1. Modern education was introduced into China by Chris- 
tian teachers and schools. Every system of modern education 
in Asia and Africa traces its origin to missionary schools. 

a. Movable Type. When thinking of these beginnings, we 
may well remember that the use of movable type, known in 
China a thousand years ago, and then forgotten for a long 
time, was re-invented in the Presbyterian Mission Press in 
Shanghai. It is this invention that has made possible the cheap 
and beautiful printing in China today, giving to its readers 
that large number of new books and periodicals resulting in 
the intellectual awakening of the present time. 

b. Schools. Before 1905, China had only a system of civil 
examinations, but no systematic instruction. There were pri- 
vate schools, but the only schools, such as the government of 
today would recognize, were the Christian schools. They were 
the pioneers, the first of them opened as long ago as 1839, and 
much difficulty and ridicule and opposition were experienced 
by them before the government and people recognized their 
value and finally adopted the methods and ideals which they 
were struggling to establish. When the government founded 
its first colleges it called on missionaries to preside over them, 
Dr. W. A. P. Martin in Peking, Dr. Tenney in Tientsin and 
Dr. Ferguson in Shanghai. 


29 

c. Studies. Not only were the missionaries the founders 
of the first modern schools in China, but they were also the 
leaders in introducing modern subjects to be taught. For- 
merly, only the classics of China were studied, and the highest 
test of scholarship was the writing of the eight-legged essay. 
The introduction of the physical sciences, of world history, of 
political economy, and almost all the other subjects that charac- 
terize modern education in China today is due to the mis- 
sionary teacher. The first Chinese textbooks in these subjects 
were written by missionaries. If I remember correctly, the 
China Christian Educational Association was founded in 1890 
as a cooperative Textbook Committee. 

So as we discuss present day tendencies in Chinese educa- 
tion, let us remember who were the first to encourage the 
Chinese student to include the whole world in his unrelenting 
search for truth. 

2. Schools for girls are a great contribution that the Chris- 
tian Church has given China. Such schools were ridiculed 
until a few years ago in China, as many of us here remember 
from personal knowledge. Today, coeducation in government 
schools has come, giving to girls equal opportunities with boys, 
and this also is the fruit of many years of missionary effort. 
Is it not evidence of the permeation of Chinese life with Chris- 
tian teachings that the educational policies and plans of the 
government of China, even though these have not yet been 
fully realized, provide today for girls as well as boys? 

3. Medicine. Another contribution of the Christian 
Church to China is medical science. Begun simply but in prac- 
tical ways in missionary hospitals, the teaching of medicine 
has been brought to its highest development in China in the 
Shantung Christian University in Tsinan, not to speak of the 
' Peking Union Medical College, which carries forward the work 
of the missionary medical college in Peking, or of the other 
medical colleges under Christian auspices in Shanghai, Mukden, 
. Changsha and other places. 


4. Agriculture and Forestry. Are not the Christian col- 
leges pioneers also in such training in China? 

5. Opportunity for Education. It may be well also to men- 
tion the fact that Christian schools have given educational 


30 
opportunities to many who otherwise would not have had these. 
This is important so long as schools and colleges are so greatly 
inadequate merely in numbers to meet the needs of China’s 
huge population. They were pioneers. Today they are still 
a worthy supplement to what is being done by the government 
and by other private schools. 

6. Patriotism. One of the complaints made by some 
against the Christian schools is on account of their alleged de- 
nationalizing influence. We shall discuss that more fully in 
the course of the day. Here I may remind you of what Chris- 
tian schools have done in training and developing patriotic 
leaders in the Republic of China. For the last ten years the 
Chinese ministers in Washington and London have been Dr. 
Sze and Dr. Koo. When the people of China wanted a repre- 
sentative of their own at the Washington Conference for the 
Limitation of Armaments, they chose Mr. David Yui; and 
similarly at the recent Opium Conferences at Geneva they 
chose Mr. T. Z. Koo. Among the premiers of the Chinese 
Republic have been Dr. Wellington Koo, Dr. W. W. Yen and 
Dr. C. H. Wang. Dr. Wang is also China’s representative on 
the panel of judges of the International Court at The Hague, 
and is now reported to have been appointed Chinese Minister 
in London. All of these are graduates of St. John’s Univer- 
sity. It is only fair to say that for most of the other 
Christian colleges there has not been sufficient time for their 
graduates to gain such places of high rank. But if you 
will go into the provincial cities and towns you will find 
some of them, and wherever Christian college men are found 
you will discover them as leaders in real patriotic service 
in many forms of civic life. There are others already 
filling places of great importance, such as Dr. P. W. Kuo, till 
recently president of Southeastern University; Dr. W. T. Tao, 
Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of 
Education. We cannot admit that it is true that Christian 
colleges in China tend to denationalize their students. On the 
contrary, the whole influence of these colleges is to give to 
their students higher ideals of true patriotism, substituting 
honesty in the place of dishonesty, self-sacrifice in the place 
of self-seeking advantage, and service in the place of profit. 


31 

More might be said, but this is probably enough. I shall 
not speak of the extent of Christian education in China. Al- 
though these schools are today only five per cent. of the whole 
educational system in China, they are an important part of 
that system, and that is one reason for the present agitation 
about them. I have tried to carry out the instructions of the 
Committee. But these things have not been said in a spirit 
of boasting, and certainly not to encourage any feelings of 
self-complacency. We are only reminding ourselves of what 
our forerunners have done. It has not been without hard toil 
and in spite of discouraging difficulties that these results have 
been achieved. It would not be right for us to forget that. 
Loyal to the spirit of these great pioneers of modern education 
in China, we purpose to carry their work forward to a larger 
fruition. We are not seeking our own advantage. We desire 
only to help China obtain the best education. We believe our 
purposes and our work are rightly appreciated by many of 
the best people in China. So, however hard it may be, we 
purpose to go on, determined not to leave this part of our 
task unfinished or half done. For such principles as religious 
freedom, we shall struggle and sacrifice, as may be necessary. 
We drop this part of our subject here. 

For the rest of the day we intend to examine ourselves, to 
criticise ourselves without mercy and to listen with open minds 
to the criticisms of others, and then to consider what we ought 
to do to mend our ways. We do not mean to persist in making 
mistakes, or to go on simply in the old ways. We earnestly 
and sincerely desire to discover our mistakes, and to do all in 
our power to correct them. 


CRITICISMS OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 


Turning now to our syllabus, I propose that we should not 
spend any time talking about strikes or demonstrations. These 
have been inaccurately reported in the newspapers, but it is 
not necessary to correct these reports. We know they have 
taken place in Canton, Ningpo, Hunan, Honan, and other 
places. They show how widespread the movement is, but 
otherwise they are significant only in so far as they are evi- 
dence of an underlying and persistent antagonism. 

I do not think it will be profitable to discuss the extent of 


32 
Bolshevistic influence. That has probably been exaggerated. 
It exists to some extent in some places, in others much less 
or not at all. In any case, we can do nothing about it, ex- 
cepting to increase our constructive work. 

Again, not much will be gained in discussing the resolutions 
adopted by the meeting in Nanking, or the later one in Kaifeng. 
These certainly are significant and important. Whether they 
will be adopted by the government, nobody can say. Your 
guess is as good as mine. There is nothing much that we 
can do with reference to governmental action. We have no 
political influence, and we would not use it if we had. I 
believe it is a fact that from 1925 all institutions above middle 
school grade, which give diplomas to students, must first obtain 
the seal of the Education Board. In future, if students de- 
siring promotion are found to be without this seal when their 
diplomas are examined, they will be disregarded; whilst all 
schools which are able to have such a seal must first be recog- 
nized by the educational authorities. This regulation will 
necessarily affect the Christian schools, and this afternoon we 
propose to discuss the question of government recognition and 
registration. We need not go into that this morning. 

The subject on which to center our discussion now is the 
reasons for the manifest opposition to Christian schools. What 
are these reasons? 

If due to misunderstanding, perhaps we can do something 
to make our purposes and methods better understood. If due 
to our mistakes, let us ask what they are, that we may try to 
correct them. If due to our connection with Western civili- 
zation, we can show that we recognize its grievous shortcom- 
ings, and unite with the Chinese in building better. If due to 
political motives and an anti-foreign spirit, we can sympa- 
thize with it so far as it is justified by past experience. If 
due to opposition to the Christian religion, or to all religion, 
we must seek to show that the fear of God is the beginning 
of all wisdom, and that religion cannot be eliminated from 
any true education. These, I think, are some of the subjects 
we should discuss during the next hour or more. It should 
be a period of self-examination and frank confession. 

At this point, let me read to you a few extracts from papers 


33 
received from China too late to be circulated with the others 
that were sent out in advance of this meeting. 

A recent bulletin issued by Shantung Christian University 
contains a summary of an address by Dr. T. T. Lew in which 
he described the genesis of the Anti-Christian Movement. 
From that illuminating statement I quote these points: 

The first step was the rise of the anti-Christian movement 
at the time of the meeting of the World’s Student Christian 
Federation at Tsing Hua College near Peking in May, 1922. 

The second step is to be seen in the development of this 
first movement into a general movement called the anti-reli- 
gious movement. A paper was published at Peking University 
called the Fei Tsung Chiao Lun, which lasted about a year, 
but it left a permanent organization which went quietly to 
work to oppose first the Y. M. C. A. and second Christian 
education. 

The third step in the movement was initiated by Chancellor 
Ts’ai Yuan P’ei, who wrote an article in the Journal of Edu- 
cation in which he said: “Those working for religion should 
not be allowed to carry on educational work.” This sentiment 
immediately met with a wide response everywhere over the 
country. 

Close upon this phase of the movement followed the fourth 
phase, largely centering round the Indemnity question, and 
complicated very much by it. A Chinese student in one of 
the American Universities heard someone say in an address 
that the Indemnity money ought to be given to Christian Edu- 
cation. He cabled to China, and the word was passed on to 
the public press. They did not directly attack the indemnity 
issue, but through it made an attack upon the Christian Church. 
This connection of indemnity money with Christian Missions 
brought in the Government people and the politicians on the 
side of the movement, who feared that the Boxer money would 
get away from their control. 

The fifth phase was the meeting of the section of the 
National Association for the Advancement of Education on 
Primary Education, which met three years ago in Tsinan. At 
that time the Association passed resolutions asking that all 
Church schools should abolish religious teaching. But this 


34 

had to be presented to the larger body which met at Tsing Hua 
the following year and may be considered the sixth phase 
of the movement. In the interim a book had come out, 
written by a student returned from England, on “National- 
ism and Education.” The man was a graduate of Peking 
Higher Normal College, was at one time a student and 
proctor at Boone University and later went to England. In 
his book he said that Christian education is not in harmony 
with nationalism. This book immediately created a wide in- 
fluence in Hunan, and from there the sentiment spread to 
other sections of the country. 

The seventh phase was the meeting of the National Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Education at Nanking. At 
that meeting the storm centre was the question of the recovery 
of Government control of education. This was the objective 
of their motions. One needs to understand the state of mind 
which was behind the actions of the educators at that meeting 
and the reasons for their motions. The first of these was 
the necessity they were under to meet the demands of the 
previous resolutions and the movement behind them, and in the 
second place to take means to combat a campaign of denation- 
alization which was being carried on by the Japanese along 
the zone of the Southern Manchuria Railway, where the Japa- 
nese had established their own system of education and were 
teaching Japanese in the schools, and controlling the program 
of the schools so as to alienate the Chinese students from 
their national sympathies. Some of the worst opponents of the 
Christian schools at that time were said to be graduates of 
Nanking and Canton Christian Universities. Another con- 
tributing cause was the Report of the Educational Commission, 
organized in America and England, which drew up plans for 
a complete Christian educational system alongside of the Gov- 
ernment scheme. So at that meeting two motions previously 
formulated were changed to the effect that all Christian schools 
ought to be registered; and that there should be two types 
of schools which should be recognized: first, those who came 
into full conformity to the Government schools, graduates of 
which should have all the privileges of Government institu- 
tions. Graduates of the second type, those who came into 


vibe 
partial conformity, would not be given full rights. The more 
drastic resolutions against Christian education, through the 
influence of prominent Christians who are in Government edu- 
cation, were put on the table. 


The eighth phase was the recent meeting of the National 
Education Association in Honan. It is to be noted that the 
National Association for the Advancement of Education is 
not an official organization, but that the National Educational 
Association is an official organization recognized by the Gov- 
ernment, whose resolutions are for the most part adopted by 
the Minister of Education. Their recent resolutions are well 
known. (See pages 9-11.) 


Dr. Lew asks what are Christian educators to do about it? 
First he says we are not to be afraid of it. In the second 
place, we should not ignore it, because it is a type of public 
opinion and we cannot afford to ignore it. Thirdly, it is an 
excellent opportunity for self-criticism and self-examination. 
Fourthly, we should make it an occasion to try to under- 
stand the attitude and the motives of those who are oppos- 
ing us. 

At the close he said that he had a vision which he thought 
might startle his hearers, but as he saw it, ten years from now 
none of the lower schools would be in the hands of the Church, 
but would all be managed by private Chinese, and that twenty 
years from now none of our middle schools would be church 
organizations, but would also be privately managed. Through 
these private schools Christian educators would make their 
Christian testimony by the excellence and thoroughness of their 
educational work and the spirit they put into their labor. 
Therefore the Chinese ought to be getting ready to take over 
responsibility for these schools. Does this mean, then, that 
we are going to lose our opportunity for religious education? 
No, but we shall take a new method. He saw a vision of 
week-day schools of religious education planted in every centre 
where there was a lower school, opening its doors daily, 
frankly teaching religion and nothing else, in which the pastor 
would urge the Christian parents to place their children for 
stated instruction under a man who was qualified to teach 
religious education, and that non-Christian children would be 


36 
attracted into the schools alongside the Christian children. 
There would be no pretense about it, there would be no possi- 
bility of making the charge that we were teaching religion 
by means of general education, but we would be frankly and 
effectively teaching the Christian religion itself. 

From a report of Dr. J. Leighton Stuart to the Trustees 
of Yenching University, I quote this paragraph: 

“The Anti-Christian Movement. This is more largely racial 
than religious. Or perhaps it is more accurate to describe it 
as fear of a widespread, highly organized, well financed propa- 
ganda from the West, the visible result of which to Chinese 
eyes is the westernization of those who come under its influ- 
ence, both in habits of thought and in formal relationships. 
It is regarded as of a piece with political aggrandizement and 
commercial exploitation and is described as a subtle form of 
imperialism and the instrument of capitalism. This revolt 
against the domination of the white race in China as among 
the other peoples of Asia is fomented by the spread of Bol- 
shevik ideas from Russia and the advocacy of a Pan-Asian 
alliance by Japan. The racial aspects of the issue are, how- 
ever, reinforced by a purely anti-religious sentiment which is 
almost universal among the young intelligentsia except in so 
far as they are genuinely Christian. The ancient scepticism 
of Chinese thought as to spiritual issues has made it easy for 
the intellectual leaders of today to accept the philosophy of 
naturalism or atheism, which, as they freely assert, they carry 
to its logical affirmations unhampered by the long Christian 
tradition in the West which prevents most thinkers there from 
going to such extremes. They are therefore entirely sincere 
and even earnest in regarding religion, and especially education 
under religious auspices, aS a menace, a reactionary force 
making for controversy, conservatism and confusion of ideas. 
This helps to explain why the present agitation is primarily 
against Christian education and is convincing evidence of how 
effective they regard it to be. This is not the place to com- 
ment on the faults in Christian schools, which are perhaps 
to no slight extent responsible for the bitterness of the present 
attacks. But it is worth noting that several of the leaders in 
them are former students in mission colleges and that a number 


37 
of ‘strikes’ and other outbreaks are occurring in mission 
schools.” 
REASONS FOR OPPOSITION 


In the papers that have been circulated you will have found 
a number of reasons that are given to explain the criticism of 
Christian schools and colleges, and for the opposition against 
them. The more important reasons that I have noted are 
these: 


1. Attitude of Scientific Criticism. In the seething, surging 
life of China today, everything is challenged. 

2. Unified System. The report of the Educational Com- 
mission was translated into Chinese, and its recommendations 
have become widely known. It is evident that its suggestion 
regarding an organized system of Christian schools has been 
misunderstood. It was not intended that these schools should 
be outside the government system and organized into another 
system parallel to it; but that they should be within the national 
system and organized for the sake of efficiency. 

3. Nationalism. It is urged that education is so vital for 
the future of the nation that it ought to be in Chinese hands 
at all costs, and not in the hands of foreigners. With reference 
to this, I may quote from a letter just received from Dr. E. W. 
Wallace, Associate General Secretary of the China Christian 
Educational Association (it is dated Shanghai, March 7th, 
1925), in which he says: 

“One of the chief attacks upon Christian schools is that 
they are a denationalizing force. We were discussing this yes- 
terday in a retreat called by the National Christian Council to 
consider the anti-Christian movement. Most of the Chinese 
members were inclined to accept the truth of the charge. Mr. 
Sanford Chen, however, who is a man of wide experience in 
Christian and government education, dissents from that view. 
He agrees that Christian schools and colleges, particularly in 
the coast provinces, have failed to give their students adequate 
training in Chinese language, history, literature, and citizen- 
ship; insofar they have failed to develop complete citizens. But 
in other matters he maintains that we are no more denation- 
alizing the students than are the government schools; that is, 
that modern education must break down the old exclusive 


38 
nationalism in culture, and open the minds of the students to 
the culture of the West.” 
Concerning the criticism of the alien character of Christian 
schools, the same letter continues as follows: 


“Another of our problems is that of securing neds leader- 
ship in Christian education, so that it may be essentially 
Chinese in its spirit and method. In regard to primary and 
secondary education, this means in the main that the Christian 
community, through the church, must take the place of the 
foreign mission as the controlling agency of our Christian edu- 
cation. How to bring this about without a loss of efficiency is 
a serious problem. To my mind this is one of the largest ques- 
tions in connection with the subject of the development of the 
indigenous church. The missions began by emphasizing 
evangelism pure and simple. They found themselves com- 
pelled, in order to build up a church, to establish and maintain 
schools and colleges. Just so the Chinese church, if it is to 
be vigorous and progressive, must undertake the education of 
its children and the training of its leaders. Some of the most 
far-seeing leaders in the church are coming to recognize this 
fact; but the majority of them I think are inclined to leave 
education to the missions. One aspect of this problem was 
suggested in a letter from a Chinese principal of a large middle 
school connected with a Christian college. Referring to the 
statement that our Christian education must become ‘more 
efficient, more Chinese, more Christian,’ he said, ‘I doubt 
whether it is possible for it to become both more Chinese and 
more Christian at the present time.’ I think that what he 
meant was that we have not yet developed a sufficient number 
of trained Christian educators within the Christian community 
who are both technically proficient and thoroughly alive to all 
that is implied in making our institutions strong Christian 
forces.” ) 

My own comments on these statements would be that they 
challenge the churches and missions to undertake more earn- 
estly than ever before the training of competent Chinese 
leaders. 


4. Vocational. A marked tendency in Chinese education 
in recent years has been the emphasis on vocational training. 


39 
Christian schools are criticized because they are backward in 
meeting these demands. 

5. Pure Education. It is urged that education should be 
separated from religion. In other words, all religious instruc- 
tion must be eliminated from the courses taught in schools 
that are recognized by the government. 

6. Misunderstanding. It is evident that both Chinese 
Christians and foreign missionaries have failed in interpreting 
in any adequate way the educational work of the churches. It 
is urgent that the utmost effort should be made to reduce this 
misunderstanding to a minimum. The comparative indiffer- 
ence of the Chinese churches toward Christian higher educa- 
tion is also a matter that should give us serious concern. The 
Christian colleges are not definitely related to the Chinese 
churches, which have not been able as yet to think on the scale 
on which those who are building up these higher institutions 
are thinking. This was pointed out by Dr. C. Y. Cheng in the 
Council of Higher Education in Shanghai last October. We 
must seek to bring about a close contact between these institu- 
tions and the churches. Not until that is done will it be a valid 
claim that the development of Christian education in China is 
legitimate for the reason that this is being done by a social 
group of Chinese people themselves. We should rejoice in the 
growth in the number of well-trained Chinese educators, and 
their consciousness of potential power, of which these papers 
that have been circulated speak so appreciatively, but it should 
also be a cause of great regret that the motives of Christian 
education should be subject to such suspicion as is evident. 

7. Elementary Schools. It is important to recognize that 
all this antagonism is directed fully as much, if not more, 
against elementary and secondary schools as against higher 
institutions. 

I have not given you an exhaustive list of the reasons that 
seem to underlie the present opposition to Christian education 
in China. It is probably long enough to serve as an introduc- 
tion to the discussion that should follow. It may be remarked 
by some that the movement is still in the stage of destructive 
criticism. There is in it a good deal of cheap iconoclasm and 
blind faddism. The historical and evolutionary point of view 


40 
will be attained later. A truly scientific attitude will come. 
Education takes time. Meanwhile we shall do well if we give 
due attention to all this criticism with the purpose of correct- 
ing mistakes both in our policies and methods. 

We must not be discouraged because of this strong opposi- 
tion to Christian education. However superficial and however 
lacking in historical perspective this anti-Christian movement 
may be, it would be a much more serious situation if our educa- 
tional work in China were so insignificant or so lacking in re- 
ligious influence as to be unnoticed in such a time as this is in 
China. It is probably true that Christianity has never been so 
seriously discussed and examined by thinking people in China 
as itis today. For that let us be truly thankful. 

Mrs. Thurston suggested that there were two reasons for 
the anti-Christian feeling in China which had not been men- 
tioned. One has to do with the foolish boasting of some re- 
garding General Feng, and the political antagonisms to him. 
Another thing not yet mentioned has to do with the registra- 
tion of schools. There is a feeling not put in words. We open 
schools to Chinese and ask that they be recognized in such a 
way as will mean that the same privileges must be granted to 
the Japanese schools. 


Dr. Robert Fitch spoke of two reasons for opposition that 
arise from the character of our own work for which we are 
partly responsible. One of the charges, that mission schools 
have not always given a sufficient training in Chinese litera- 
ture, history and philosophy, he believed to be a true charge. 
We have not given the emphasis that ought to be given to those 
studies. This is partly accounted for by the tremendous de- 
mand by the Chinese for special English education. In trying 
to meet that demand for English for which we are better quali- 
fied than other schools we have failed to give the right emphasis 
to Chinese literature. Another reason of which he spoke, with 
conviction arising out of ten years’ experience, is the failure 
of Christian missions to cultivate a sufficiently intimate and 
friendly relationship between the church and community; and 
failure in many instances to produce a sufficiently sympathetic 
relationship between Christian educational work and non- 
Christian educational work. 


41 

Dr. Russell said: There are four points which I wish to 
make on the basis of an experience of several years ago. I 
know nothing about conditions during the last two years. 

1. Some of the difficulty may be attributed to the natural 
conflict between administrators of educational institutions -and 
those who are administered. College presidents are better paid 
and have greater honors because they have more difficult jobs. 
There is natural friction. Now because most of the mission 
institutions are in the hands of foreigners and most of the 
faculty Chinese it is possible that this natural friction, common 
to most institutions, may seem to be Chinese vs. the foreigner, 
when really it is only subordinate vs. administrator. 


2. Much of the difficulty undoubtedly comes from the un- 
equal financial status of the Chinese and foreigners. You can’t 
expect whole-hearted cooperation so long as a great part of 
the staff is on a lower basis. This will not be solved until 
conditions are made more equal. It is not true that a Chinese 
professor of high rank can live on a low scale. He must sup- 
port a foreign and Chinese wardrobe, he must entertain, he 
must have and maintain a position. 


3. The expansion in the budget needed to care for the 
Chinese staff can be met only in two ways—increased support 
from abroad, or rigid concentration. It has been my judgment 
for some time that the program of higher education on the 
mission field can only be perpetuated by elimination of most 
of the colleges by raising their standards and promoting them 
into first class middle schools and confining all institutions of 
collegiate grade to not more than five institutions. I would 
select them by lot. 

4. The fourth point admits the high worth of the Christian 
school, but explains the lack of enthusiasm for the average 
school as seen through non-Christian eyes. 


Mr. Roger Greene questioned whether the teaching of religion 
and the observance of religious exercises in mission schools 
are really a matter of choice. On the face of it, it does seem 
perfectly true that if a person does not like to go to school he 
need not go. But it is also true that the number of schools is 
entirely inadequate for the number of students wishing to 
enter. In some mission schools there are special equipment 


42 
or teachers which put these institutions in a class superior to 
the Chinese institutions in that particular vicinity. There is no 
free choice. A man does not have a choice between two insti- 
tutions of equal quality in the locality accessible to him. That 
feature does excite criticism in China. It means take it or do 
without entirely. 

Dr. Sidney Gulick suggested another question. Beginning 
in 1900, and particularly after the Russo-Japanese war, tens 
of thousands of Chinese students went to Japan, creating a 
great deal of anxiety and disturbance for the Japanese edu- 
cators. The Japanese were not able to take care of the Chinese 
students and we missionaries did not understand what was 
happening. There were a few missionaries sent from China to 
help take care of the Chinese students in Japan, but that was 
wholly inadequate and naturally the students got into many 
bad ways, absorbing a great deal of an anti-Christian attitude 
toward Christianity. Just how much these Chinese students in 
Japan secured from the anti-Christian elements in Japan we do 
not know. How far may the tens of thousands of Chinese stu- 
dents who have been in Japan be in part at least responsible 
for these conditions developing in China? 

Mr.T.Z. Koo: I would like to add a word to the discussion 
that is going on. All the reasons given from one source or 
another undoubtedly have a bearing on the development of the 
anti-Christian feeling in China. We have to remember one 
other fact which you will perhaps not hear people mention very 
often. Nevertheless, it is in the minds of many Chinese, 
especially in the younger group, and that is the conviction that 
the western peoples at present are exponents of the doctrine of 
domination. I think we need to recognize this fact very 
frankly. In my visits here in the West, I once had a talk with 
a Chancellor of a great university. He said to me that the 
best guarantee for world peace is a thorough understanding 
between America and Great Britain. It may be so from his 
point of view, yet that guarantee of peace will be built upon 
repressed forces in other races which some day will burst their 
bounds. That psychology of white domination is suspected 
and resented very much in the Far East and although you may 
not hear people refer to it as a direct cause of the anti-Chris- 


43 

tian movement, yet it is perhaps responsible for this movement 
more than any other single cause. One of the resolutions 
passed by the Young China Association states very distinctly 
that in our unfriendly relationship with Japan we ought not 
to forget that there is as much reason to be on our guard 
against Great Britain and America. Whether imaginary or 
real, there is growing up among the peoples of the East this 
sense of injustice and fear of aggression. Unfortunately, 
the evidence of recent events serves but to confirm that fear, 
such as the talk of a white Pacific, the Singapore base, the 
American naval maneuvers, the rigid exclusion acts of various 
countries bordering on the Pacific, etc. 

Dr. S. H. Chester asked Mr. Koo whether it is possible for 
the missionary body in China to disassociate itself from the 
other foreign elements in China which represent this imperial- 
istic attitude. How can we get relief from that kind of criti- 
cism that is directed primarily against others? Mr. Koo replied 
that he would answer that question later in his more formal 
statement. 

Dr. Wm. E. Hoy, who had spent fifteen years in Japan and 
twenty-five years in China, expressed his agreement with Mr. 
Koo. He spoke of racial pride and said that he had been told 
by some of the leaders in Japan that the Americans and British 
are the proudest people on the face of the earth. Many of 
those men had traveled through America and England, and 
what they said came out of what they had experienced. In 
Japan when it was urged that power and leadership must be 
given to the Japanese Church he was glad to follow the leader- 
ship of a Japanese. So in China, we must make ourselves one 
with the Chinese people. We are too proud and that is a 
great hindrance. 

Dr. Boville read a quotation from a Chinese paper recently 
received by him commenting on the development of vacation 
Bible schools in China. ‘The quotation opposed such plans 
because they were contrary to the resolutions adopted by the 
Chinese Educational Associations, which opposed the teaching 
of the Bible in primary schools. Dr. Boville commented on 
the newspaper item by saying that since the beginning of 
the free Christian vacation schools in China it has been a rule 


44 
that the Chinese flag should be seen over every building where 
these schools were held. The Chinese flag must be saluted by 
the children and the national anthem sung by the students. The 
children had to be taught what the flag meant. Possibly not 
enough attention in the past had been given to the recognition 
of the fact that while we are working in China we are under 
the protection of the Chinese flag, and working with the 
cooperation of the Chinese people. 


Prof. Lewis Hodous referred to the question that had been 
raised as to whether this opposition is something that is tem- 
porary because strikes have ceased. As we look back into 
Chinese history we realize that the real leaders of China have 
always been the scholars, and scholars always accomplish that 
which they set out to do. Just look over the history of the 
attitude of scholars toward foreign religions. Buddhism with 
its educational work was confined in narrow quarters. The 
Jesuits had to go. More recently we have an illustration with 
reference to those who are trying to spread Japanese influence. 
The scholars are very insistent upon one thing, and that is that 
they ultimately control China according to their ideas. It is 
perfectly plain that if we are to continue our work in China 
we must find out what these scholars think we ought to do and 
do it with as good grace as we possibly can. Otherwise we 
shall meet the fate of Buddhism and several other isms who 
have tried to come with foreign propaganda into China. 


Dr. James Ewing of India remarked that China is in the 
very midst of a movement which began in India some ten or 
twelve years earlier. The things that he had heard this morn- 
ing had convinced him that the situations are quite alike in the 
two countries. About fifteen years ago Christian education 
so far as teaching was concerned was challenged in India and 
a law was passed by the Imperial government making it pos- 
sible for every province to adopt its own method. The law was 
not enforced in every province. Enough has taken place to 
make it evident that the root of the whole trouble is national. 
He agreed with Mr. Koo entirely in what he said. We have 
not shown ourselves in the past able to put out of sight and 
keep out of sight our imagined racial superiority and the result 
has been that the people in the great countries of the East have 


45 

been filled with resentment again and again and are filled with 
resentment today. They believe that Britain and America feel 
they could manage these countries a great deal better than they 
could. They think we are willing to give help so long as we 
are allowed to manage the whole situation. This is our vital 
difficulty in dealing with the foreign people in the matter of 
their education. 


Dr. Frank Rawlinson: I have to make four points in five 
minutes. But let me take time to point out first that we are 
dealing with an articulated and growing movement. We must 
also recognize that we ourselves have, so to speak, furnished 
the ammunition for this attack. For we have recently pub- 
lished statements about the Christian Movement in China 
(The Survey Volume, The Chinese Church in 1922, and the 
report of the China Educational Commission) that are being 
assiduously studied by the nationalistic and interested Chinese 
' leaders and which, for the first time in the history of the 
Christian Movement in China, enable the Chinese to see how 
big and significant it is. Looked at in this way the anti- 
Christian movement is to some extent a reaction to the facts 
that we have made public. Now we must try to understand 
what the Chinese are thinking. For the moment whether or 
not what they are thinking is entirely true may be treated as a 
subsidiary question. 


As to what the Chinese are thinking about the Christian 
Movement I can only mention four points: 


1. I find that Chinese leaders and students in America and 
China are charging us with being insincere. By this they mean 
that we claim to be in China purely for the interest of other 
people, when as a matter of fact our whole movement is propa- 
gandic and in the interest of something else. Evidently there 
is something in their minds that needs to be cleared up. In 
any event we must so present the Christian Message to the 
Chinese that we cannot be charged with acting from a double 
motive. 

2. Again the Christian Movement is being persistently 
charged with being affiliated with political powers. I recently 
talked with a prominent educationist in the National Univer- 
sity at Peking. I was after him, on the advice of Christian 


46 

friends, to write an article for the China Mission Year Book. 
He hesitated to write. I pressed him. He urged that the 
Christians would not be interested in anything he might say. 
Finally in a letter he said—I put it realistically that you may 
understand the intensity of his feeling: “What do they care 
for the opinion of a damned heathen like myself? Is not 
Christianity protected by the powers?’ Such an incident 
would have no significance were it not typical of a state of 
suppressed feeling under which not a few prominent Chinese 
leaders labor. Some, indeed, of the Chinese leaders charge us 
with being as much interested in national propaganda as in 
religious work. 

3. Again quite recently Mr. C. T. Wang, a prominent 
Christian political leader, expressed himself in the public press 
of Shanghai as feeling that a part at least of the missionaries 
do not treat the Chinese as equals. This attitude they share 
in common with their countrymen who are in business and 
politics. A public utterance like that cannot go unnoted. It 
involves a situation that should be cleared up. 

4. Then, too, there is a discrepancy between much of the 
religious teaching in Christian schools and the science that 
came out of the West and is also taught in the same schools. 
Such a discrepancy creates disturbance in the minds of the 
Chinese as to what the essential Christian Message is. 

And so some desire that the Christian Movement be put on 
such a basis that we can convince the Chinese that we are in 
China simply and only to bring to them the knowledge of God. 

(The Committee of Arrangements had invited Mr. T. Z. Koo 
to prepare an address for the Conference, and at this point the 
Chairman invited him to speak.) 

Mr. T. Z. Koo: What I want to do this morning is simply 
to try to interpret some of the things that are happening in 
China in connection with Christian education from the point 
of view of one who is a Chinese and who is also a Christian, 
and who has had the opportunity of seeing the work in many 
parts of the country. I wish to share with you some of the 
observations I have made on this question. I do not think it 
will be necessary for me to say much about my attitude towards 
mission schools and colleges in China. Naturally as a graduate 


47 

from a mission college I am in sympathy with work of that 
nature, and even if in my remarks I should say things that 
might sound critical to you I do not say them simply for the 
purpose of criticism. I wish also to add that I have no direct 
interest in this question at all as I am not a member of any 
University staff, whether administrative or teaching, but never- 
theless my interest in it is a very great one, because I see quite 
clearly that many of the leaders we need today to create the 
new China will, for a long time yet, come from Christian 
schools. Say what we will, we are producing the type of men 
who are not only well-educated but who also have a different 
spirit, the spirit of Christ, from the men produced in other insti- 
tutions. I recognize this fact very frankly and have had to 
face it in my practical work, first on the railway and now in 
thesyeve CFA. 

1. Let me first mention quite briefly a few facts that we 
need to understand clearly. Dr. Warnshuis mentioned a minute 
ago that up to about 1905 there was not in China, so to speak, 
a state system of education. Up to that time the state only pro- 
vided a system of Imperial examinations. The people had to 
provide their own facilities for acquiring an education. This 
system was abolished about 1905 and a new system of state 
schools was organized. Inevitably, when that system was 
first started, it was very much a mixture of educational ideals 
borrowed from Japan and other western countries. But as 
that system developed in the last twenty years there has come 
to the group of men and women who are interested in that 
work a sense of mission and a consciousness of purpose. In 
other words, we are seeing the birth of a national educational 
movement in our country. That is a point we need to recog- 
nize. When a group of people becomes conscious of a growing 
‘system of national education and then sees by its side another 
system of education quite separate from the government system 
and started, supported and controlled by people other than 
Chinese, I think we can understand why questions should be 
raised about the matter. These questions will not pass, because 
as our educational system grows older and becomes mcre 
national, the tendency to question Christian education will 
increase and gather strength from year to year. I think I do 


48 

not have to tell you that as Chinese we rather sympathize with 
that point of view. I have heard people express surprise that 
we should object to Christian education, which after all is but 
a form of private education. May I point out that at this time 
of rapidly growing national sentiment there is a whole lot of 
difference in the eyes of our people between private education 
organized and controlled by Chinese citizens and that organ- 
ized and controlled by citizens of other countries. 


2. Through the influence of such nationalistic groups as the 
Kuo Ming Tong (Dr. Sun’s party), the Young China Associa- 
tion, and various other associations in the country, there has 
grown up a demand that in our education we should try to 
create in our people a sense of racial unity and national con- 
sciousness. Many people have mentioned the fact that Christian 
schools tend to denationalize the Chinese. I think that is 
hardly true, even from our own point of view. But the criti- 
cism is, I think, due chiefly to the fact that Christian schools to- 
day are producing a line of men and women who because of 
that education are friendly to such an extent to the countries 
making that education possible that they are inclined to close 
their eyes to the outstanding facts in the relationship between 
China and the western nations. 

3. The third tendency that I would like to call to your mind 
is the desire of the Chinese educators to maintain in their educa- 
tional system a scientific attitude of mind. Much of the oppo- 
sition to the so-called religious training is mostly due to their 
belief that religion tends to create superstition and an attitude 
of mind which they would call unscientific. Therefore, they 
question very much whether it is wise to mix up religion with 
education. Let us remember here that we are not dealing with 
a modern and passing phase with regard to Chinese education. 
This scientific attitude of mind has dominated Chinese scholars 
for the last two or three hundred years. I read a book recently 
written by Liang Chi Chao, entitled, “The History of the Devel- 
opment of Literature in the Tsing Dynasty.” From that book 
one can get quite clearly the fact that the real scholars who 
dominated the development of thought and literature in the 
past three hundred years are scholars who emphasize very 
much the scientific attitude of mind. Ku Ting Sin, perhaps the 


49 

most famous scholar in those days, in his Memoirs said that 
as scholars we ought to take pains to study our premises before 
we accept anything, but once you are sure of your premises 
and you know that a thing is right, then even if you are one in 
a thousand be courageous and follow; on the other hand if you 
are sure after study that a thing is wrong, then even if you 
know the other nine hundred and ninety-nine are against you, be 
courageous and discard it. That is the attitude of mind main- 
tained by our leading scholars. Chinese educators today wish 
to carry over that same spirit into our new national system of 
education. The use or exercise of that attitude of mind in the 
past has been very largely concentrated on the study of our 
own classics and philosophy to the exclusion of the practical 
sciences. To bring that attitude of mind to bear on scientific 
as well as classic education is the desire of Chinese educators 
today. Let us recognize this tendency frankly because it affects 
very vitally the presentation of the Gospel especially among 
students. ; 


4. This very naturally leads on to the fourth tendency in 
Chinese education today, that is, the desire to keep religion and 
education distinct. Whether that desire is right or wrong is 
really a secondary question. The important thing to remem- 
ber is that practically the entire group of Chinese educators 
today think along that line and prefer to see education unmixed 
with religion. 


5. Another development in Chinese education which we 
little realize is the desire of Chinese educators to promote what 
is called the “Ching Nien Tuan Movement or Group Move- 
ments of Youth.” They wish to give our students training in 
group life and activities, thus developing in our youth groups 
the ability to think together and to cooperate especially along 
social and nationalistic lines. That is why when missionary 
schools forbid their students to participate in student move- 
ments of one kind or another they call down upon themselves 
much unfavorable criticism. 

6. One other tendency I would like to mention. In Chinese 
education today, vocational education is coming more and more 
to be emphasized. In an address given by Mr. Liang Chi 
Chao in Peking two or three years ago, he urged that in our 


50 

plans for higher education for women we ought to emphasize 
these things: (a) Let us give our women the kind of training 
which would equip them to become teachers of history. We 
have no good teachers of history in China today, especially 
for our middle schools and primary schools. (b) He would 
like to see women trained as accountants. (c) Train our 
women for library administration. (d) He also would give to 
our women the training that would equip them for journalism. 
These points mentioned by Mr. Liang Chi Chao in themselves 
are not of great importance. But as indicative of a tendency 
on the part of Chinese educators today to emphasize voca- 
tional training they are of great value. Compare this type of 
thinking with that done by those engaged in the education of 
women in our Christian schools and you will realize how far 
apart the two groups are. The above are some of the trends 
we are facing in China’s educational program. We at the 
same time will recognize that Christian education in China is a 
part of a larger problem of how to create and develop a 
national system of education in our country, then we shall be 
in the proper frame of mind to face the situation before us. 

The present situation raises certain questions in our minds. 


1. What is the real purpose of Christian education? Is 
Christian education intended primarily to be an education for 
the children of the Christian community, or do we claim for 
ourselves a larger field of service in training the coming leaders, 
for a new China? How to answer that question is a very im- 
portant matter as our future plans would be determined by the 
answer. 


2. Next comes the question of religious work in our 
Christian schools, the so-called question of conformity. There 
are two sides to this question: one is the conformity in the 
matter of educational standards. 1 think that very few people 
would question the desirability of mission schools conforming 
to the requirements of the government. And the other is re- 
ligious conformity, that is, would we be required to stop our 
religious teaching and work in our schools? 

3. The third question is one that Dr. Chester has raised and 
is a question that has been very much in my mind, and especially 
since I have left China recently it has been forcing itself upon 


51 

my consciousness. How far as Christian workers and Christian 
institutions are we prepared to fall back upon our extra-terri- 
torial rights, and our treaty rights? That question will increas- 
ingly be forced upon our attention. What I would like to do 
today is to ask people to help each other to think through this 
situation. I know that there are groups in China who think 
they should give up everything and say let us forget that we 
are American or British. Others will say if I am a bachelor 
I can do so, but if I have a family it is a different matter. I 
know there are also groups who will say they are part of their 
country and they see no reason why they should renounce any 
right or privilege as a citizen of that country. Then some- 
times one meets missionaries who rather pride themselves that 
they are from western countries. I met a missionary in Great 
Britain last summer who brought out the fact that as he be- 
longs to a different race he should maintain his dignity and 
when necessary “put the native in his place.’ We recognize 
this as one of the coming problems which missionaries and 
Chinese Christians need to face very soon. 


Now a few suggestions as to what ought to be done. You 
will recognize that I raise these points purely from the point 
of view of a layman. 


1. The first suggestion I would like to make is that those 
who are responsible for Christian education today should re- 
study the policy of our educational work especially for the 
purpose of concentration. We may not agree with all the 
recommendations made in the Burton report, yet I think we 
all will see the wisdom of concentration. I can see little hope 
for raising the standard of Christian education in China except 
by adopting the principle of concentration. Instead of having 
four or five colleges near each other doing very much the 
same type of work, we should concentrate on a particular type 
of work in one college, another type in another college, but all 
forming parts of one university. Take for example East China, 
where we have a group of institutions like St. John’s, Shanghai 
Baptist College, Hangchow Christian College, Soochow Uni- 
versity and Nanking University. I believe all these institu- 
tions are conducting a liberal arts department. Would we not 
do a higher grade of work if these institutions can agree to 


52 

concentrate that department of work in one or two colleges and 
thus leave the others to develop on other lines? By a pooling 
of resources in men and money in this way our work will be- 
come more efficient and probably less costly to the individual 
boards. In such a plan we would be able to raise the standard 
of Christian education in China and we have no place in China 
for our educational work unless it is absolutely of the best 
quality. 

2. In the field of administration I would urge, first, the 
transfer of control of our educational institutions from the 
home base out to the local field. This would make it possible 
to begin the development of Chinese boards of control, which 
is essential if the institutions are not to remain permanently 
mission institutions. Next, I would urge the drawing in of 
more Chinese into the administrative and teaching staffs of the 
Universities and Colleges and other schools. Theoretically 
we are all agreed on this point. Yet practically we see a com- 
paratively small number of Chinese connected with our 
Christian educational institutions. The chief difficulty is inher- 
ent in the whole system of mission policy and administration. 
As carried on at the present time, it is difficult for Chinese 
workers to come to have a sense of ownership and partner- 
ship in Christian work. Of course, salaries and treatment also 
enter into the question, but the main reason is undoubtedly the 
one I have just mentioned. Therefore, to secure and retain 
Chinese workers in Christian service, a fundamental change in 
mission policy and administration is necessary. The initiative 
to make this change lies very largely with those who are in con- 
trol of Christian education in China. 

3. Another suggestion I would like to make is that Christian 
schools have to give in the future more attention to the teaching 
of Chinese. St. John’s University in the past few years has 
been making an effort to establish a really strong Chinese 
Department. Take a government college like Tsing Hua, they 
too are going to establish “Kuo Hsueh Yuan,” or a college of 
National Learning. That simply indicates to you one strong 
tendency in that this tendency to emphasize the adequate teach- 
ings of Chinese is unmistakable and for Christian education 
this emphasis is doubly important. 


93 

4. I would like to make another suggestion bearing on the 
nature of Christian education. Christian education, in the past, 
has been an education intended to give a liberal education to 
students. Because we have developed along that line we are 
today reaping very rich fruits in the type of men we have pro- 
duced. Many of our leaders today in our modern professions 
are Christian school graduates. We have secured these rich 
results largely because we pioneered in the realm of liberal 
education. But the development of our country for the next 
twenty-five years or so will undoubtedly call for men and 
women with more technical training, such as railroad and 
electrical engineers, architects, shipbuilders, industrial en- 
gineers, etc. This field is practically untouched as far as 
Christian education is concerned. The government schools are 
doing more along that line than we are, but the effort is still 
wholly inadequate. Why then not seize the opportunity of 
providing such training for those who come to our Christian 
schools? If this is done soon, in the next generation of technical 
men needed by China, our Christian educational institutions will 
supply a fair proportion of the technical men needed by our 
country in the near future. When I was working on the rail- 
road a few years ago I became aware of the fact that very 
few of the technically trained men are products of Christian 
institutions. This is a significant fact and is one which should 
be remedied early by developing strong departments for tech- 
nical training. This is essential not only for the general need 
in our country, but also for the building up of a strong Christian 
laity. The alumni of St. John’s have been urging the estab- 
lishment of schools of engineering, law, and business in the 
university. This is the thinking of a group of mature men, 
graduates from a Christian college, who want to see their univer- 
sity continue to give its contribution in creating the necessary 
leaders for New China. This thinking is but a reflection of 
the general opinion in our country on this subject and Christian 
educators will do well to give heed to it. e 

5. The last suggestion I would like to make is on the ques- 
tion of developing Chinese support for Christian educational 
institutions. These institutions depend chiefly for their sup- 
port on two sources of income, namely, tuition fees and con- 


54 

tributions from abroad. No consistent effort has been made to 
develop Chinese support for these institutions. With a grow- 
ing body of influential alumni attached to each institution, with 
careful cultivation and encouragement, it ought not to be diff- 
cult to make a beginning in the development of Chinese support. 
Until that is done Christian educational work will always 
be looked upon as foreign propaganda. We need to move 
quickly in this respect. «As the anti-Christian movement grows 
stronger, many who are friends today of our work will be 
alienated from us. 


Lastly, I want to say that I think we need to realize very 
much that the root of the whole problem, as one or two have 
mentioned this morning, is that we are not presenting to the 
Chinese people a Christianity which is the religion of Christ. 
A wide chasm exists today between precept and life among 
Christian believers. As long as that chasm exists we shall 
always be questioned in our motives. 


Upon reassembling in the afternoon, after a period of united 
prayer, the Chairman announced that for a short time the 
discussion of the first two main sections of the syllabus would 
be continued and that then the other points of the syllabus 
would be taken up for the remainder of the afternoon and eve- 
ning sessions. 


14. Rev, Jacob G. Rupp stated his conviction that if the 
government of the United States and the government of Eng- 
land would apply Christian principles in their relations with 
other governments, many of these troubles would not arise. 
If those privileges that have been obtained by American and 
British citizens had not been obtained in the way that has 
been followed, these troubles would not be. 


15. Dr. Robert Fitch answered some of the statements made 
in the forenoon session. It had been intimated that the stand- 
ards in our Christian’ schools are rather low. He did not be- 
lieve this and he did not think that relative to government insti- 
tutions the standards of Christian institutions are low. There 
are certain things in which the government institutions surpass, 
as in Chinese literature, history and philosophy. But, on the 


55 

whole, there were some who considered two years in a Christ- 
ian college equal to four in some government colleges. We 
must also realize that in spite of criticisms against the Christian 
institutions, there are a large number of scholars and a large 
number from the intelligent class who will play two to five 
times as much to send their children to Christian schools than 
to send them to government schools. They will pay that larger 
sum to send the children to Christian schools without govern- 
ment recognition and hence without government diplomas. 
These people are not spending this larger sum of money to 
send their boys to the Christian institutions where they cannot 
get government diplomas unless they believe that they not only 
get the moral training but also intellectual results equal to 
what is obtained in government colleges. 


It had been mentioned that some of the men are not trained 
as they ought to be. The missionary body recognize this. In 
the last several years there is a very marked change in that situ- 
ation in China. There is a very earnest attempt on the part of 
Christian institutions to secure specially trained men and women 
for the various departments in which they are to teach. This 
is true in most of the colleges in China, and it ought to be said 
when we speak about our Christian institutions. We cannot 
accept the unchallenged idea that Christian educators in China 
are not doing the best they can under a rather serious handicap. 
In the future, the difficulties of Christian education may become 
very much greater and if there is not a much more serious cor- 
relation and much greater advance in the development of 
Christian education in China, we may suffer rather seriously 
by virtue of our inadequacy. He also believed that we should 
have as rapidly as possible a recognition of Chinese leadership 
and of Chinese Christians as Deans and Presidents of our col- 
leges. There are various institutions today who are looking 
for such qualified Chinese teachers. The Chinese on the faculty 
should receive equal recognition and equal remuneration as is 
given to our missionaries. 

The question of salary is not a simple one. We come from 
an American background and our children must receive an 
American education and for our children’s education we receive 
about one-third the actual cost of the education in America 


56 

and that means that for every child we must decrease our living 
expenses. The Chinese with their Chinese background, if they 
receive an American salary, are not compelled to educate their 
children abroad. The expense of educating their children is 
about a quarter or a fifth of what it will be for the missionary. 
I have a great deal of sympathy with the idea that the Chinese 
should receive as high a salary as the missionary without the 
special children’s allowance for education abroad. We desire, a 
status of equality, when it comes to the treatment of our Chinese 
co-workers in our institutions. They are often better qualified 
to teach in China than we are. We have just put a Chinese at 
the head of the department of philosophy. Until we recog- 
nize that the latent capacity of the Chinese is equal to that of 
Americans and until we regard ourselves in no sense superior 
to the Chinese and recognize them as our coworkers in a great 
world-wide religious movement, we shall not succeed. 


16. Dr. F. D. Gamewell spoke in support of what Dr. Fitch 
had said. He had been in China for nearly forty-four years 
and for the last twenty or thirty years he had realized that our 
business was to make ourselves dispensable as fast as possible. 
He spoke also of the work of the China educational commis- 
sion, which he considered to be one of the most effective in- 
fluences in the development of Christian education in China. 
He urged that we must be careful not to charge up everything 
that happens in China to the anti-Christian movement at the 
present time. 

Some time ago the papers reported the dismissal of the Pres- 
ident of the South Eastern University. A letter recently re- 
ceived by him explained that this action was not part of the 
anti-Christian Movement, but was due to the political situation. 


Mr. Allchin (formerly of Japan) suggested that conformity 
with government requirements would not end all difficulties, 
for there will always be anti-Christian forces in opposition to 
Christian education. 


Miss Wild spoke of her experience in teaching the Bible in 
.Ginling College, and urged that the next step should be to 
make religious education come up to the same level as the rest 
of the education of the Christian schools. She thought it was 
the consensus of opinion that Bible teaching, the principal pur- 


57 
pose for which we are in China, is the poorest taught subjeet 
in our schools. | 

Dr. Franklin: Under Roman number II, question 2, “What 
is the purpose of Christian education in China?” Let us pro- 
ceed by taking up this question. 

Mr. Hawkins: What was behind the enumeration of these 
three topics? Do they include the training of children as 
Christians ° : 

Dr. H. W. Luce: I was connected with a University that 
boasted that it never graduated a man who was not a Christian, 
and I always welcomed a non-Christian man coming into that in- 
stitution. I was glad to find out that 60% or 65% of the Peking 
University men are Christians. I believe we ought to open up 
our universities and colleges to any who will come and ob- 
serve its rules and use it as an evangelistic agency and then 
out of that number we can raise up leaders who are not hot- 
house leaders, but who are trained to live with and know those 
who are in a non-Christian community. We ought to open 
our doors widely, and at the same time maintain high Christian 
standards. 

Dr. T. H. P. Sailer: It seems to me that the indispensable 
contribution of the missionary school is in helping to Chris- 
tianize the social order. The church, if so minded, can supply 
inspiration for this, but good intentions are not enough today, 
when social institutions and their inter-relations have become so 
complex. We need insight into the social, economic and politi- 
cal organization of the modern world, which is provided by a 
thoroughly socialized curriculum. If we make the social studies 
the core of our work and prepare our students, not only to 
adjust themselves to their environment, but to ‘shape it towards 
realization of the kingdom of God, we shall render a service 
which no other missionary agency is so well fitted to perform, 
and one, moreover, which will be welcomed by the government. 
This presupposes that our schools shall undertake more than 
academic instruction plus individual evangelism; that they shall 
supply both social motive and social insight. Progressive 
schools in this country are recognizing their responsibility for 
specific contributions to a better world, but they are handicapped 
by their inability to utilize the religious motive. Missionary 


58 
schools have the motive and need only to borrow the content 
of subject matter and the technique. 

Dr. Weir: My society has been giving considerable thought 
to Christian education, and while its objective has been prim- 
arily India, I think their conclusions apply also to China. These 
conclusions, as I understand them, are that as a Missionary So- 
ciety our educational work is intended for the propagation of 
the Gospel. We are not sure today what the government can 
do, or whether they can do that equally as well. It-is essential 
that we should provide a Christian education, in the full sense 
of the word, for our own people and incidentally we shall raise 
up leaders by so doing. I think it is the teaching of the chil- 
dren that 1s our primary concern now, but we feel we must 
carry on their education as far as we can. We have thought 
that for primary education, a school in which the students are 
mainly Christians is probably more important, because the 
younger they are the more important their associates are in 
creating impressions. We may hope in college education to 
make a real contribution to the country in the raising up of 
possible leaders who shall have strong Christian characters. 


Professor Ely: One of the purposes that we are out in 
China for is to build up an indigenous church. We look for- 
ward to the time when we can turn over not only our institu- 
tions but the church and all its work to the native people. One 
of the aims of our educational institutions is to train not only 
leaders but other workers in the whole economic field so that 
we may create a greater measure of self support on the field 
not only for the institution but for the Chinese Church. I 
should make that one of our aims, the building up of an in- 
digenous church, working towards complete financial support 
eventually. 

Prof. C. M. Lacey Sites: I think our faculty as a whole 
regard the Bible teaching department as justified if it succeeds 
in presenting its share of a liberal education. A liberal educa- 
tion including the Bible must be such an education as will 
stand scientifically on a reasonable basis and appeal to the stu- 
dents as both interesting and worth while. This is the basis 
on which we framed our curriculum. That I think is the dis- 
tinctive feature of the Christian college in China. 


59 

Dr Russell said: If one gives a functional definition of 
Christian education in China it means a plan of education 
which has as its first aim the training of a few leaders, spend- 
ing possibly two-thirds of its educational money on the educa- 
tion of a relatively small number of doctors, preachers, teach- 
ers, Officials, and business men. Its second aim is to build the 
Christian community, since it spends only one-fifth as much 
on middle schools as it spends for higher education. Rela- 
tively a very small sum goes into primary schools. 


Professor Beach: In reply to the question before us, allow 
me to make my answer—only one reply of many that might be 
given—and make it in the words of a former head of the Board 
of Education in Canton Province and later practical head of 
the Treasury Department at Peking in the closing period of the 
Monarchy. He was himself a Confucianist, but he had studied 
in America, having secured his Ph. D. at Yale. In substance 
this was his reply: 

“China is a Confucian State. In our own educational work, 
we must teach Confucianism, in so far as we teach any reli- 
gion. You as a foreign Christian institution are free to teach 
what you like. Replying to your question, I would say that I 
think you are not only justified in teaching the Bible and its 
outgrowth, Christianity, but that I would advise your doing so, 
partly because we ourselves in government education cannot 
do it. I advise it for these reasons. We new scholars, espe- 
cially those of us who were educated in America and Europe, 
often talk among ourselves about what China can learn from 
the Occident. As we have studied its history and present con- 
dition, we note great differences between Occidental nations and 
still greater ones between the West and China. The advanced 
civilization of Occidental lands is due to many causes, in our 
opinion, and not nearly so exclusively to Christianity as mis- 
sionaries claim. Yet we cannot but acknowledge that one ex- 
tremely important point of difference between East and West 
is that the West has made fundamental one Book and one Man. 
That Book, of course, is your Bible; your Man is Jesus Christ, 
so clearly set forth in the New Testament. China is in search 
of power, of those principles which have made nations and 
peoples great and relatively good. If we are correct in esti- 


60 

mating the place of the Bible and of Jesus in Western civili- 
zation and advancement, then it is obviously to our advantage 
to have the same Book and Man made known to our students. 
The studies about which you ask me and the formal daily reli- 
gious exercises which you are permitted to require as our col- 
leges cannot, are agencies through which these elements of 
power and betterment are best imparted. While as a Con- 
fucianist I regard our great Sage as the greatest leader of our 
past, quite possibly the Sage of Galilee and His teachings are 
most important for our future. At any rate, you have the 
opportunity of imparting this knowledge and this new life, 
and I would advise you to make them part of your educa- 
tional scheme, as I have already said.” 

This conversation took place some fifteen years ago, but it 
seems to me that it is an answer that is still in the thought of 
historically intelligent, thinking Chinese non-Christians today. 
What China’s new education most fundamentally needs is what 
my Chinese friend so frankly told me more than a decade ago. 


Dr. Franklin: Dr. Eric North has been requested by the 
committee to open the discussion on Section III of the syllabus. 


Dr. Eric North: My responsibility is to bring to the confer- 
ence the judgments expressed in such material as has been re- 
ceived from China as to the points in the Syllabus under the 
heading, ‘““What ought to be done?” We need to enter into the 
atmosphere of the discussions in China itself. 


First: “What ought to be done” in the matter of the attitude 
of the Christian agencies and mission boards towards the situa- 
tion in China. The first requirement is clear understanding. 
Our committee felt that the points and ideas we wanted most 
were those of the Christian Chinese who were in sympathy with 
our fundamental interests in China, and at the same time had 
their national viewpoint. As we go forward through the months 
and years in the consideration of this whole question we shall 
need to keep very close to the thinking of our Christian Chinese 
brothers. 

In the second place, the reports indicate that we must be 
careful “not to be stampeded by these attacks.” There is no 
ground for hasty action at the present time. Yet the thing we 
have to fear is being timorous and failing to understand the 


61 
situation. We “need to exercise infinite sympathy and imagina- 
tion” during the years that are to follow because difficulties 
will not be cleared up quickly. On the other hand, “a policy of 
drift or of waiting upon events would be most unfortunate.” 
We must move with the situation and if possible in advance 
Obit 

Second: Turning from the general attitude to general meas- 
ures, the material from China gives the impression that there 
are many Chinese educators not Christians who do not know 
what we are about. One of the first things to do is to enlighten 
our opponents as to our real interests by disseminating carefully 
prepared statements. This is already under way in China in 
the form of several special bulletins by Sanford C. C. Chen 
and E. W. Wallace, of the China Christian Educational Asso- 
ciation; Chinese Christian educators, not in the mission schools, 
are reported to be planning a journal to meet the anti-Christian 
attack ; similar local action is being taken. 

At this point we should remind ourselves of the Hic neha 

between elementary and secondary education on one hand and 
higher education on the other. Our reports indicate that pri- 
mary and secondary education are being attacked more than 
higher education, though we are more likely ourselves to be 
thinking of the colleges. Dr. Tao emphasizes the difference 
between the attack on these two phases and himself believes 
that there is a more permanent place for higher education. You 
will recall Dr. T. T. Lew’s dream of a national system of educa- 
tion, where religious instruction would be given outside of 
school time and that the teaching of the so-called secular sub- 
jects in all the elementary schools would be left to the govern- 
ment; the Christian colleges providing the teachers for the 
religious instruction. 
- Going now (Third) to the first detailed topic of the outline 
“making Christian education more Chinese,” the first suggestion 
is a larger Chinese share in the control and administration of 
the Schools. On this Dr. Tao points out that the institutions 
which give larger opportunity to the Chinese staff are the ones 
that are gaining in favor. He raises the question whether taking 
tuition fees into consideration there is any ground on which even 
our financial basis of control will stand. 


62 
The following counsel of the Conference of Chinese Admin- 
istrators of Christian colleges is shared by a number of mission 
educational leaders: 


Because Christian higher education exists for providing China with 
Christian leadership and because the responsibility for maintaining and 
promoting such education must ultimately rest with the Chinese, it would 
be wise to begin now to place more and more qualified Chinese in posi- 
tions of administrative responsibility. Furthermore, we deem it advis- 
able that an increasing number of well-qualified Chinese from the alumni 
and from among the friends of Christian education should be added to 
the boards of control in China which are responsible for the determina- 
tion of the policies of these institutions. We deem it advisable that the 
Chinese membership of these boards should be large enough to guar- 
antee that the best Chinese judgment is secured 


A second point in the making of Christian education more 
Chinese is the fitting of curriculum and activities to Chinese life. 
There are several ways of making this adaptation. One is that 
of correlating Christian schools with the national education 
system both as to curriculum and as to standards ; wherever this 
is discussed in the data in hand, this is urged. The question 
has been raised whether it may not be possible for a mission 
institution to become definitely affiliated with a Government 
school. A second approach is that of making more effective 
the Chinese instruction already given. The Conference of 
Chinese Administrators summarizes the opinion of many: 


~ We rejoice in the beginnings that are being made in making Christian 
higher educational institutions in China not only places of interpreting 
that which is best in the Western civilization but also centers of China’s 
own culture. To further this purpose it is important that emphasis 
should be laid upon training men and women to be worthy citizens of 
the Republic of China, with accurate knowledge and true appreciation 
of China’s culture and ability and skill to apply it to the needs of 
modern life. 


We feel that it is necessary to place even more emphasis upon the 
teaching of Chinese in Christian colleges and universities. As very few 
of the college students have been adequately prepared along the line 
of Chinese studies in the middle schools, it would be wise for the 
Christian college curriculum to insist on, at least, certain minimum 
requirements in Chinese studies in the colleges. Those should include: 
(1) ability to write Chinese correctly; (2) ability to express the content 
of a college education in Chinese; (3) genuine appreciation of China’s 
culture and literary heritage. In order to meet these minimum require- 
ments it is necessary to have adequate courses on the Chinese language, 
literature, history, and philosophy under competent Chinese instructors. 


From another angle comes the criticism that our Christian 
education is not really at grips with Chinese social problems 
and that a more forward-looking social viewpoint is needed. 


63 


A third item relates to the use of the Chinese language. On 
this two quotations will suffice: 

While our ultimate aim is to use Chinese as the medium of instruction, 
yet during this period of transition it is necessary for various reasons 
to give instruction in many subjects through the medium of English. 
We deem it advisable, save for exceptional cases, that: (1) The foreign - 
instructors should use English as the medium of instruction; (2) that 
the Chinese instructors should use Chinese as the medium of instruction; 
(3) that in filling vacancies on the faculties, other things being equal, 
preference should be given to qualified Chinese who are skilled in using 
Chinese as the medium of instruction; (4) That in order to make possible 
the fullest cooperation between the Chinese and foreign members on 
the faculty, in the employment of teachers of the Department of Chinese, 
other things being equal, preference should be given to those who 
possess a working knowledge of English. (Conference of Chinese 
Administrators. ) 


“In this regard it is probable that there will be very soon 
a demand that the medium of instruction in middle schools and 
to a large extent in colleges shall not be English but Chinese. 
With that idea I am in the heartiest accord. We are engaged 
now in studying that question and endeavoring to secure text 
books in Chinese for middle schools, which will largely do away 
with the necessity for teaching middle school subjects in 
English. Of course the bearing of this upon college entrance 
requirements is very great and we are planning to tackle that 
aspect of the subject also.” (Dr. E. W. Wallace.) 


Another phase of this topic is the recommended increase not 
only in Chinese administration but also in Chinese staff. The 
Conference of Chinese Administrators adds an important sug- 
gestion: 

In order that Christian institutions may maintain their proper position 
at this time when academic standards are steadily rising, it is necessary 
that facilities should be provided and conditions made possible for the 


development of the members of the teaching staff in these institutions, 
both foreign and Chinese, toward the attainment of intellectual leadership. 


Upon the matter of relationship between the Chinese and 
foreign members of the staff there is little indication of anything 
except the most cordial relations ; most of the difficulties arising 
probably being due, as Dr. Russell suggested this morning, to 
the differences of opinion inevitable between the administrators 
and the administered ; indeed one administrator states that his 
problems do not arise between the two racial groups but within 
each one. On this the Chinese administrators state: 


Since the Chinese and western members of the staff are dedicated 
to the same purpose and share the same responsibility we deem it 


64 


necessary that a sense of common proprietorship should be cultivated 
by the following means: (1) a natural open-minded and friendly attitude 
one to another; (2) facilities for closer social intercourse and spiritual 
fellowship ; (3) provision without distinction of nationality for salary, 
residence, children’s allowance, insurance, travelling expenses, and medi- 
cal attendance, all of which are to be determined by a proper system 
of ranking based on qualifications and service. 


The matter of the rela‘ ionship of Christian education in China 
to the Christian Church is one of far-reaching importance for 
the future but few suggestions appear in the data at hand. The 
chief comment is that of Dr. C. Y. Cheng, who is reported as 
saying that 

The chief difficulty so far as the Chinese church is concerned is 
not that it has specific criticisms to offer, but that it seems to be totally 
indifferent. The Christian institutions of higher learning are not definitely 
related to the Chinese churches, which have no accurate knowledge re- 
garding their problems and therefore have no interest in them. This is 
not to be wondered at inasmuch as Christians have not been able as yet 
to think on the scale on which those who are building up these higher 
institutions are thinking. He stated that the work of the medical institu- 
tions is more closely linked up with the churches. The churches are not 
even being trained to be interested in higher educational work. We 


should seek to bring about a closer contact between the institutions and 
the churches. 


Dr. Hu Shih, the leader of the New Thought Moyement, 
stated to the faculty of one of the Christian colleges that these 
colleges could have an assured future only on condition that they 
raised the standard in quality to the highest pitch. “Quality at 
all costs: limit the quantitative tests to elevate the qualitative 
tests. If you get a good equipment and good men, then your 
future is assured ; no one can or will desire to destroy the posi- 
tion you have. It is a matter of the internal surviving qualities.” 
Upon this matter of efficiency, Dr. Wallace writes: “There 
seems to be need for a man to give his major time to technical 
studies for primary and secondary schools. People are wholly 
converted to the need for making our Christian schools more 
efficient. They are clamoring for definite help which can only 
be given by having someone free to take up one problem after 
another and to put in printed form the results of study and 
experience.” 

The matter of increasing efficiency by the reduction in the 
numbers of schools of all grades and the resulting concentration 
of effort comes with emphasis in several statements including 
the points of view of a mission educator, of a Christian educator 
in Government service, and of non-Christian educational leaders. 


65 
It appears likely that the thought here at the home base is more 
prone to think of concentration only in relation to higher educa- 
tion and not also to primary and secondary education. 


A final point as to larger Chinese share in Christian institu- 
tions relates to finances—the matter of increasing Chinese sup- 
port. President Stuart suggests that this will follow when the 
institutions are more closely in line with national education, are 
registered, have a larger Chinese staff with more Chinese 
administration, and deal more adequately with the specifically 
Chinese subjects in the curriculum. 


The second major topic in this part of the syllabus raises the 
question, ““What ought to be done to make Christian education 
more efficient?” Several of the points already noted also fall 
under this head. Others are here noted. The first is the empha- 
sis on the importance of effectiveness. “It is becoming increas- 
ingly evident,’ writes President Balme, “that if Christian 
schools and colleges are to find their permanent place in the edu- 
cational system of China, it will only be because their educa- 
tional contribution is so superlatively good that it cannot well be 
dispensed with, and because at the same time they are offering 
something which is unique in nature, namely, the building up 
of strong moral and religious character, and the development 
of public spirited citizenship.” 

The second sub-heading of the syllabus calls for a statement 
upon a home base item. In the spring of 1923 there grew out 
of a conference of presidents of Christian colleges in China 
a call upon the boards of trustees and committees to appoint 
a joint committee to consider the subject of the promoting, in 
America, of the interests of the Christian colleges in China and 
facing the matters involved in coordination. When the com- 
mittee met there were representatives of a very large number 
of these colleges and universities. After careful consideration 
it was agreed that there ought to be formed in North America 
a permanent committee on the coordination and promotion of 
higher education in China. Provision was made that each one 
of the universities and colleges should be asked to approve 
this plan and to appoint a representative and that the perma- 
nent committee should begin its work when two-thirds of the 
institutions should approve and also when two-thirds of the 


66 

mission boards cooperating in these institutions should approve. » 
At the present moment ten of the fifteen colleges on the list 
have taken the necessary action. Of the thirteen boards related 
to these colleges, we have word of the approval of seven and 
expect before long the approval from another. 

(Since the Conference the number of necessary approvals has been 
completed. The representatives of these institutions will now be able 


to face together the problems of coordination in promotion and the 
implications of this in work in China and America.) 


The third major division of the topic is “What ought to be 
done to make Christian education more religious?” Such 
material as has come upon this point deals in large part with the 
problem of compulsory religious instruction and the relation to 
it of registration of schools, which also appears as a part of the 
subject of making the schools more Chinese. It is evident that 
a number of Chinese Christian educators hold that religious 
instruction should not be compulsory. The full statement of the 
Conference of Chinese Administrators should be noted: 


We wish to affirm our conviction of the supreme value of religion in 
developing character and our belief that here especially a Christian 
institution makes its distinctive contribution to China. Too much empha- 
sis cannot be laid upon religious education, and it is essential that this 
should be given in such a way as to achieve its best results. To this 
end we suggest the need for: (1) adequate provision for such worship 
as will meet the needs of Chinese life; (2) carefully selected and well 
organized courses in religious studies that will give the students an 
adequate appreciation of our Christian heritage; (3) consecrated and 
scholarly instructors who will impart to the students the Christian spirit 
and association with whom will help form in them true Christian char- 
acter. 


While we desire to see each of our students brought under direct 
Christian influence through worship, religious instruction, and association 
with Christian teachers, it is our conviction that this end can best be 
achieved not by depending upon compulsion in attendance at the religious 
services and the religious instruction, but by making the services and 
instruction so vital that the same end will be achieved through voluntary 
attendance. 


Furthermore, we deem it necessary that each institution should in 
addition have a well-qualified person whose primary responsibility is to 
the religious life of the students. 


Dr. Wallace clearly states the issue in the matter of registra- 
tion and estimates the trend: 


“One group of our opponents, the Young China Society, 
desire that Christian schools should be brought under govern- 
ment direction in some form or other. If this takes the form 
of registration with the government of Christian schools and 


67 
colleges we are in hearty agreement, provided that this does 
not prevent us from making our distinctive contribution to 
education in China. The crucial question here is religious 
teaching in Christian schools. Our opponents, as a rule, insist 
that religious teaching should either be done away with, or at 
least made optional. We on the other hand take our stand 
upon what we believe is the sound educational principle, that 
private schools exist in order to enable groups within the 
larger society to give their children a type of education which 
is a variant from the general public type; that Christian schools 
in China exist fundamentally for the sake of the Christian 
community, to give its children education under religious 
(Christian) influence and to train its leaders, and that it is 
therefore in accordance with the principle of freedom in educa- 
tion that the Christian schools emphasize religious teaching. 
No parent is under compulsion to send his children to Christian 
schools, therefore it cannot be said that students are compelled 
to study religion. So much for the principle. When it comes 
to a matter of expediency, whether the purpose of the Christian 
private schools can best be achieved by requiring religious in- 
struction of all students or making it optional, that is open to 
debate on its own merits. It is now one of the most earnestly 
debated questions. The probability is that we shall decide that 
it should be required in primary schools, optional in colleges, 
and left largely to local conditions in middle schools. Our 


annual meeting will consider the matter.” 

On registration the Conference of Administrators expresses 
itself : 

Since Christian higher educational institutions were established and 
maintained for the service of the Chinese nation, they should have their 
recognized place in the Chinese educational system. We believe that 
the time has come that steps should be taken to secure recognition 
through the registration of the institutions with the Chinese Government 


authorities, provided that the terms of registration do not prejudice our 
Christian purpose. 


From the material and the discussions, and some history in 
other lands that have been in our minds in this conference, it is 
clear that issues of much seriousness can arise upon this subject 
at two points: first, an issue within our own Christian forces 
between those, on the one hand, who hold to the necessity of 
required religious instruction and who therefore would probably 


68 

feel it necessary to resist any Government regulation that limits 
their freedom to make this requirement and those, on the other, 
who feel that more is gained than lost by putting such instruc- 
tion upon a voluntary basis. Again, if the Christian schools hold 
to a religious requirement and the Government prohibit it, with 
or without registration, or if the Government should reach the 
extreme of forbidding all religious teaching, another major issue 
would confront Christian education. 

As we think of these issues we ought again to read the state- 
ment in one of the documents, that “solely in the realm of 
religion” will that uniqueness of the contribution of Christian 
education to China appear which can justify its position in 
China. “And this must be infinitely more than the mere offer- 
ing of certain additional religious courses to a government cur- 
riculum or of religious services, whether compulsory or volun- 
tary. The whole content of the university course of instruction 
must be permeated with a vital, throbbing message of Chris- 
tianity.” With this thought as applying to all Christian educa- 
tional effort in China and remembering that while many attacks 
are being made against Christianity, little if any criticism is 
offered of Christianity’s Lord, we have to stand steadfast with 
our Chinese fellow-Christians to maintain and to strengthen this 
very influence. Educational history and educational authority 
have been increasingly demonstrating in many lands the value 
of the private school to national life and to national educational 
systems. Experience has also been demonstrating—to us in the 
United States quite pointedly—that the elimination of religion 
from broad sections of a nation’s education may easily result in 
conditions far more serious than those which the rigid separation 
of public education from the religious life of children and youth 
was designed to prevent and that the trend—taking it the world 
around—is in the direction of recognizing the wholeness of the 
educational life of the pupil as rightly including religious expe- 
rience. We must help our fellow-workers in China in the wit- 
ness to the validity and power of a Christian education. 

In thinking as we have been of Christian education in Chris- 
tian schools, let us not forget also the potentiality of Christian 
influence among the thousands of students in Government 
schools, whose religious needs—even in State colleges in Amer- 
ica—we have been all too slow to realize. 


69 

Dr. Chester: What would you think of me if I were to 
raise the question as to whether there is any anti-Christian 
movement in China? I believe a great many of those who are 
leading anti-Christian movements, so call it because they do not 
know what it implies. There are anti-religious movements in 
China and in Russia and in the United States and everywhere 
else, and in dealing with them it seems to me that the word 
“concession” ought not to come into our consideration at all. 
They are something that we must fight from a Christian stand- 
point. There is an anti-foreign feeling among a great many 
Christian Chinese, as well as other Chinese associations, against 
mission bodies as against diplomatic, commercial and other for- 
eign elements. We might see whether this opposition to mis- 
sions is not because of their association with political interests. 
I would like to ask a question of Mr. Koo, How are we to dis- 
associate our missionary work and missionary workers from 
relationships with other foreigners in China so as to relieve them 
from the odium that other foreigners have caused? A ques- 
tion of treaty rights is a very serious matter for us to consider. 
Just how far ought we to insist on treaty rights between for- 
eigners and China? Should we go the full length or make no 
demands? We shall not expect the aid of our home govern- 
ments for the protection of lives, but I believe we should be 
careful to conform to treaty rights under the treaties. 


Dr. Frank Rawlinson: I should like to continue the discus- 
sion along the line of the political status and significance of the 
Christian Movement in China. But first I wish to say that I 
cannot quite agree with Dr. Chester that the present movement 
is not really anti-Christian. The movement is really anti- 
Christian to a considerable extent though it is also and probably 
mainly anti-religious as well. But the point on which I wish 
to add a few remarks is the relation of the Christian Move- 
ment to existing treaties. Mr. Wu Lai Chang is a prominent 
Anglican in Peking and also chief secretary of the Govern- 
ment Ministry of Education. He wrote a report of the actions 
taken by the Federation of Educational Societies of all the 
Provinces in their meeting in Kaifeng, Honan, in October, 
1924. This report was printed in “Truth,” a small Christian 
periodical published in Peking. At the close of his article he 


70 
made a point which raises the whole question of the relation 
of Christian schools in particular and the Christian Movement 
in general to treaties. He pointed out that the recommendations 
of these Chinese educators in so far as they affected the status 
of Christian schools could not be acted on by the Ministry of 
Education. Such actions would have to go to the Bureau of 
Foreign Affairs. That means, of course, that this problem of 
Christian schools is in the last analysis a matter of international 
diplomacy. This fact forces upon us the question of the nature 
of these treaties which thus determine the status of Christian 
schools in China. Now these treaties are under criticism. It 
may, of course, be said in rebuttal, that they bear the marks of 
our civilization and that we do not stand for this civilization in 
its entirety. Many feel that this position relieves Christians 
from discussing their relation to these treaties. But does it? 
A factor or two must be kept in mind. The treaties which give 
the “right” to conduct Christian schools in China are exactly 
the same treaties on which the merchant and the diplomat de- 
pend for their “right.” And in the making of these treaties 
the missionaries of the past have taken no inconsiderable part. 
A large part of the first treaty made with China followed 
verbally what had previously been written and published by 
missionaries. Indeed up until 1900 diplomatic intercourse with 
the Chinese Government fell in no small measure upon the 
missionaries. The charge that Christianity is “capitalistic, im- 
perialistic and militaristic’ is due in no small measure to the 
fact that Christianity in China is linked up with treaties which 
to a large extent illustrate these principles. It does not help 
us to try and disclaim responsibility for the civilization that 
is characterized by these undesirable principles. We really are 
a part of our civilization. We cannot dodge this fact. And 
in so far as the civilization of which we are a part can be 
charged with being, for instance, capitalistic, then Christian 
work in China is supported by funds raised in a capitalistic 
society. To that extent the same remark might be made about 
the imperialistic and militaristic aspects of our civilization 
which are under attack. I repeat, we are part of the civiliza- 
tion which is being criticized in China and which some of us 
try to disown. But what should we do about it? There is a 


71 
quite practical application of all this. I happen to be one of a 
group of missionaries who some time since were banqueted 
by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. The 
banquet was a delightful affair. Later the missionaries returned 
the compliment. In the speech made at the first banquet refer- 
ence was made to the use of guns on the Yangtze for the pur- 
pose of protecting trade “rights.” I should not feel free to 
make reference to this speech as it was not intended to be 
made public, had it not as a matter of fact been already pub- 
lished in the United States. Its publication created in some 
circles a certain amount of stir. Now whether we like it or 
not, many Chinese have the missionary movement mixed up 
with this “gun” policy on the Yangtze. And as a missionary | 
want to point out the seriousness of this situation. On the one 
hand some American merchants have been pressing for more 
military pressure in connection with commercial interests and 
at the same time endeavoring to bring about a rapprochement 
between the merchant and the missionary for the mutual pro- 
tection of “rights.”” Now what shall your missionaries do under 
these circumstances? Shall they fall in with this lead of the 
merchants and work with them for the enforcement of treaty 
“rights”? That way means further criticism, and estrangement 
from those we are trying to help. Indeed Mr. C. T. Wang, 
already referred to in a previous speech, said in the same public 
utterance that the best thing for the missionaries to do is to 
keep clear of these moves on the part of the merchants. Shall 
or must your missionaries therefore come out and openly op- 
pose the merchants who have come from their own country? 
Neither of these extreme courses is necessary or advisable. Yet 
the missionaries should recognize their responsibility for the 
treaties that are under criticism. Efforts should be made to find 
international arrangements more just and satisfactory to the 
Chinese. And inasmuch as the missionaries helped to build up 
the present treaties why should they not also help to search for 
arrangements to displace them that are more Christian? We 
must not drift. Why should we wait until we are forced to act? 
What then can be done? My answer to this question can best 
be put in the form of another question. Has not the time come 
for the diplomats, the merchants and the missionaries, together 


72 

with representatives of China, Christian and non-Christian, to 
reconsider carefully present international arrangements with a 
view to finding others fairer and more acceptable to China? 
Such a movement would not, of course, be aimed at either 
clarifying or maintaining the statu quo but would seek for 
something new and better. It would take time of course. But 
the very announcement of such a plan would tend to relieve 
the present strain. 


Dr. H, W. Luce spoke of the racial aspect of these questions 
and referred to Mr. Oldham’s book, “Christianity and the Race 
Problem.” Recently Dr. Hu Shih was invited to address the 
Peking University Faculty on the subject of higher education 
in China. He is well known as a foremost leader in modern 
China. From what he said it is clear that he thinks there is 
no place for religion in education. He said he thought the 
Chinese were the greatest rationalists of the world. There are 
some leaders in China today who seem hardly to know what 
Christianity is. A friend of mine spent last year at our Uni- 
versity where he had a class of about a hundred. considering 
the whole question of religion. He asked why a good many 
of the intelligent leaders did not believe in Christianity. He 
had various replies and the vast majority did not know what 
Christianity was. They think that we are bringing just added 
superstition to China and they say they have enough of their 
own already. In regard to religious instruction, there is some- 
thing about the men that leads them to protest against com- 
pulsion. We have compulsory athletics and students must go 
to the classes, but when it comes to the teaching of religion and 
religious classes, they hesitate. The most difficult thing is to 
get the students to take the religious studies. 

There is another point that I think we must consider. It is 
a practical point in that it relates to the whole question of regis- 
tration. I have been told that certain schools and colleges in 
Japan, some twenty-five or thirty years ago, did not yield to 
the demands of the government for registration. It is said that 
the schools that did not yield received lower grade students; 
the better students would not come to them, and the students 
who came were only those who could not enter the government 
schools The schools that did yield kept their students, and now 


73 

when restrictions are less severe they are in a strong position 
to go ahead. I think I would favor placing our religious in- 
struction on an elective basis. There is a letter from Dr. Speer 
in which he seems to take the opposite view. What happened 
in Japan could be applied to China. There are two things we 
need to have in mind regarding the racial question, we need to 
have humility and regarding the educational question we need 
to have extreme patience. 


Dr. Franklin: We should like to hear a few words from Dr. 
Reischauer as to what is occurring in the schools of Japan. 


Dr. Reischauer: In 1898 the Japanese Government took a 
very much more decided attitude than the Chinese want to take 
now. Most of the schools stood firm and in a few years most 
of the major things were given back to us. Today the schools 
that did not yield have all the privileges that the government 
schools have and our mission schools have turned away two- 
thirds of the students who apply. Today we have just as many 
students as any one. The schools that did not yield were given 
back their privileges to teach the Bible, to have chapel service 
and all the freedom on that line with full permission. Our 
graduates can pass into the higher schools the same as others. 
There is close connection it seems to me in this problem between 
giving more authority to the Chinese in the administration of 
the school and getting on the right plane with the government. 
If the Chinese are at the head of the school they can ask as 
citizens of China for privileges which we as foreigners cannot 
ask. 


Dr. Drach. Many of the problems of China, with reference to 
religion and education in China, are due to our foolish mistakes 
in America in the separation of religion and education in our 
own public school system. It seems to me that if we will set 
cour faces to show China and the Chinese that religion is a 
fundamental element in our modern education, beginning with 
the primary and middle grades and going up to the very highest 
form of education, by revising here in America our own edu- 
cational platform in the interest of our Christian religion, then 
it may be that all of our missionary educational problems will 
be solved and it will remain true that if we Christianize Amer- 
ica, America may be able to Christianize the world. 


74 

Dr, Avison: Korea has just gone through this difficulty. It 
began in 1915. It was not until ten years ago but within ten 
years that question was solved. At that time the Japanese gov- 
ernment decided to compel a separation between religion and 
education, and declared that after ten years, in 1925, private 
schools should be compelled to follow the example of the gov- 
ernment schools in separating religion from its educational 
processes. Upon inquiring as to what they meant exactly, we 
were told it meant that religion could not be taught and that 
religious exercises could not be held within the school buildings 
or on the grounds at any time during the twenty-four hours of 
any day. That raised a very difficult question. We did not want 
to close our schools, but we could not carry on the schools if we 
had no religious teaching. They then said we could have reli- 
gious teaching on the next site to the school, so we had our re- 
ligious teaching there. Our missionaries divided into two camps. 
On one side are those who say we have a right to teach what 
we want in our private schools and we have our treaty rights 
and will demand them at the hands of the government. An- 
other party says let us see what we can do without making these 
demands. We were just about to organize a new college and 
being a new institution we did not have ten years in which to 
bring ourselves into conformity for we had to get our new 
charter, and it had to be on the basis of the government regu- 
lations. It took two years to negotiate the charter. I wrote 
out everything we wanted in the first sketch and sent it in. It 
was returned with the request that we eliminate everything 
relating to religion. We waited a couple of months and then 
we sent it in again asking the same things in a different lan- 
guage. We received a reply stating that some of the formula 
was not as good as it should be and asked us to modify it. We 
waited another couple of months and sent it in again and re- 
ceived a reply asking if we didn’t want to put it this way. As 
it answered our need, we said, “Yes, we will take it that way.” 
We got a charter that enables us to carry on education in Korea 
and teach the young men in accordance with Christian prin- 
ciples. Then we got another statement requiring that every 
member of the board and every member of the faculty must 
be a Christian, and further that all the articles that refer to 


75 
religion cannot be amended. Now all our colleges are on that 
basis with absolute freedom of religion and are registered with 
the government. All our middle schools come up to the stand- 
ards of the government curriculum, and have all the privileges 
of the government schools. 


Mr. T. Z. Koo: IJ think I would like to help you to under- 
stand the psychology that is involved in this whole question 
so that you may know what we think about the matter. The 
experience of missions in Japan has been used for illustration 
quite a few times. There is, however, one very important 
point of difference we need to bear in mind. In Japan, the 
Japanese are dictating and the missionaries are accepting. In 
China, it is the other way ’round and therefore we are much 
more difficult to satisfy on that account. 


The second point of psychology is that no matter what we 
do to make education more Chinese or more Christian, one im- 
portant point is how to give the Chinese workers in Christian 
education a sense of proprietorship in the work. I especially 
mention this point because several speakers raised the point that 
by paying larger salaries to Chinese workers, we would better 
keep them in the service. This is true to a certain extent. But 
the real point is that many Chinese workers in Christian insti- 
tutions today in China do not feel the work is theirs but that 
they are paid employees of a foreign agency. Create a sense 
of proprietorship in these workers and you will find this prob- 
lem on the way to solution. 


Other things I want to say are these. First, I think at pres- 
ent the opportunity to make these changes in our educational 
work is still in our hands. We, therefore, would be very wise 
indeed to take the initiative and not wait until we are forced 
to make the changes. 


The other thing I want to say, and I hope you will pardon 
me for saying it, is that we have done so much talking about 
this whole matter that you will be surprised to find how many 
Chinese today take the attitude that we are not sincere in our 
desire to make this branch of our work more Chinese. I, there- 
fore, urge strongly that you take into consideration this point 
of psychology. Do something, however little it may be. 

On the question of religious work in our educational insti- 


76 

tutions, I have sensed on the part of many people the feeling 
that if we abolish required religious work and teaching in our 
schools and put in practice a voluntary system, it means the 
loss of the Christian purpose of our institutions. Let us first 
remember that in Christian schools the question of religious 
work is part of the larger question, religious work among all 
students. To one student in Christian schools we have ten in 
government schools. No religious work is possible in these 
government schools except the voluntary work carried on by 
the student groups. As far as Christian schools are concerned, 
let us remember we will not lose very much in the religious 
value of our schools even if our work is put on a voluntary 
basis. The only difference I can see 1s that when we are on 
that basis we have to work much harder. As far as our own 
experience goes, the one essential element in religious work, 
whether voluntary or compulsory, is personality. Without a 
vital Christian personality behind our religious program, it will 
always be barren. 

Dr. Ernest D. Burton: I feel some hesitation in speaking to 
you today, for although the subject under discussion is one in 
which I share your profound interest and to which I have in the 
past given considerable study, I have not, for many months, been 
able to give to it the attention which many of you have given it. 
Since returning from China I have undertaken another task 
which consumes twenty-four hours of the day, seven days in 
the week—and the fragments of time which are left do not give 
me much opportunity to study the situation in China. Yet so 
deep and continuous is my interest in it that I have felt unable 
to refuse the request that I say a few words at least in regard 
to this situation in which I am so greatly interested, and the 
issues Of which are of such great importance,—even though 
almost all the things which I have in mind to say have just been 
said by Mr. Koo. 

The first thing I want to emphasize is that we must face the 
present situation wholly without prejudice. We who are 
engaged in this great missionary enterprise must be ready to 
learn from our past experiences, from our mistakes as well as 
from our achievements. We must believe that the Lord leads 
us on. We have a present situation to face, and that situation 


77 
calls for a careful consideration of the facts, unprejudiced by 
the practices of the past, or by the findings or recommendations 
of any reports which have been made in the past. Practices and 
findings may have been right three years ago and wrong today. 
We must face the situation anew without prejudice. 


In particular I hope that all of us have foresworn, or are now 
ready to foreswear, whatever prejudices we may ever have had 
against Oriental races, or in favor of Western civilization. 
None of us who have really known China and the Chinese can 
have retained such prejudices, if we ever had them. 


My next suggestion is that we ought to try once more to 
define the purpose of Christian education in China; to say 
clearly why we are undertaking to develop educational work in 
China. I hope that I may not seem harsh, if I.confess that I 
have never heard the purpose of Christian education in mission 
countries discussed without disappointment. I have been dis- 
appointed because so little attention has been paid to finding the 
answer to this question, and disappointed because there has 
seemed to be so little clear thinking in regard to it. Is this 
because there is disagreement in our thinking on this question, 
which we do not want to bring to the light? Surely it is not 
because we have not given thought to it. And surely it is not 
because we do not have convictions in regard to it. Ought we 
not to share our thinking and voice our convictions and come to 
some common agreement? I do not mean that we shall try to 
compromise, or give up our convictions, but that we _ shall 
together find out what our present difficulties are, try to solve 
some of them, and find a platform of purpose on which we can 
stand together. 


That which seems to me absolutely fundamental in reference 
_to this matter, and essential to recognize, is that Christian edu- 
cation, like any other Christian activity, is primarily the ex- 
pression of the Christian spirit. The most effective way of 
carrying the Christian message to any people is to take to them 
the spirit of Jesus Christ. I believe that it would be possible to 
Christianize a people by living the Christian life in their midst, 
even if no other means of bringing- Christianity to them were 
available, and that no other means can be effective without such 
living. That which is fundamental in Christian missionary edu- 


78 
cation is, therefore, that it should be an expression of the spirit 
of Jesus Christ. 

Applied to China and to Christian education there, this means 
that the fundamental purpose of Christian education in China 
is to make the largest possible contribution to the welfare of 
China. That of course demands that we understand China, 
that we consider what is involved in her welfare, and define it 
broadly and inclusively. It is not a true expression of the 
Christian spirit to see one’s brother go hungry, or naked, and 
do nothing about it. For the religion of Christ does not consist 
solely in the acceptance of any religious belief, or the adoption 
of any religious principle, but in the application of the Christian 
spirit to the whole of life. 

My next suggestion is that the specific purpose of Christian 
education in any land depends upon the conditions in that land. 
I have seen Christian schools in another country fulfilling a 
specific purpose which seemed to me to be an entirely right one 
for them, but which would not seem to me to be at all the right 
purpose for a Christian school in China. The conditions in the 
two countries are so different that the specific task must of 
necessity be a different one. In view of conditions as they are 
in China, I am convinced that the specific purpose of Christian 
education there today ought to be the development of a strong 
Christian community. I believe that we have reached the stage 
in our education in China, where this should be the primary 
purpose. But this purpose includes a number of things. It 
includes the winning of non-Christians to the acceptance of 
Jesus Christ as their Lord and Master. It includes the building 
up of an intelligent Christian laity, of men and women able to 
follow the leadership of strong Christian leaders, and it includes 
the development and training of such leaders. It involves the 
creation in all Christians of the spirit of social service which 
shall express itself in the community, and shall permeate the 
community. I am convinced that if we put our emphasis upon. 
the development in the midst of China of such a Christian com- 
munity, animated by the Christian spirit, organized into or 
around a Christian church, we shall be more able to see the goal 
of all our efforts clearly, and to coordinate them all wisely, 


79 
than if our emphasis is placed upon any of the more incidental 
aims included in this larger purpose. 

But we must not forget that this purpose is itself a means 
to an end. We must not lose sight of the fact that our funda- 
mental purpose is to make the largest possible contribution to 
China’s welfare; and we must be ready to make any adjust- 
ments of policy or practice which may at any time be necessary 
in order to enable us to achieve this end. 


One more thing I wish were possible, namely; that clearly 
defining the purpose of Christian education, we should also 
make it clear to the Chinese what we mean by Christianity 
itself. Many of them do not now understand. Many of them 
have gained from us a misconception of what it is. I wish 
that we might all have such a clear conception of what is really 
vital to Christianity that all our differences and difficulties might 
sink into the insignificance that really belongs to them; that the 
Spirit of God might so take possession of our hearts that we 
might, in all we do and say, make clear to our Chinese friends 
what the spirit and gospel of Jesus Christ really are. Is this 
too much to hope for? Can we ever do our real work in China 
until it is attained ¢ 


So much then for the things which seem to me to be funda- 
mental to our consideration of this situation. May I make a 
few practical suggestions? 


In the first place let us act without unnecessary delay. Per- 
haps we have talked long enough. Perhaps we had now better 
come to a decision. Would it not be better to reach a decision 
that is only ninety percent right, and act on it, and think about 
the other ten percent later, than to delay action longer? I sus- 
pect that we have already delayed too long, and have allowed 
obstacles to stand in the way of decision. Has not the time 
come for some rapid thinking that shall bring us to decisions and 
forward steps? Let us be willing to take some risk, since any 
risk that we may take is better than drifting and delay. Let us 
dare to put the leadership of our educational task into the hands 
of the Chinese. They may bungle it for a while. Very well. 
Better let them bungle it than keep it in our own hands, for it 
will always be bungled as long as we keep control of it. 

Let us remember, as has been said so often today, that control 


80 

by the Chinese, complete control, is the goal of our efforts— 
that we are not in China to maintain a Christian movement 
which is essentially foreign. We are there, as was said this 
morning, to make ourselves dispensable as soon as possible. The 
characteristic of the foreign missionary movement is that it 
becomes successful by putting itself out of business. The 
Christian movement in mission fields must of course begin with 
the foreigner. He is at first all there is; then becomes fellow 
worker with his converts, then helper and adviser, and finally 
makes himself unnecessary. I suspect that if we could make 
our Chinese friends see that we recognize this, a good deal of 
their suspicion of us might be removed. 

After all China belongs to the Chinese. Somewhere in the 
dim dark ages I seem to remember to have heard people speak 
of the “rights” of the Christian religion; as if we had a right 
to trample upon the national rights of other nations. This is 
much as if, in some American community, we were to claim 
that a Christian Church, needing a place to preach, therefore 
had the right to lay hands upon a piece of ground on which to 
erect a building for the carrying out of its work, regardless of 
the rights of those to whom the land belonged. We of the 
Christian Church in America have no right to violate the civil 
rights of our fellow citizens; nor have we the right to violate 
the rights of the Chinese in China. After all China belongs to 
the Chinese. It is no part of our mission, as Christians, to 
violate the very spirit of Christianity by disregarding the rights 
of other nations. 

Shall Christian schools make attendance at Bible classes and 
religious services compulsory? This does not seem to me an 
essential part of our Christian education in China. The quality 
of our education in Christianity is far more important than that 
it be compulsory. If it is not compulsory, it must compete, 
on the same level, with other subjects. If its quality is high 
we should not fear such competition. I hesitate to say it—yet 
if I am to believe the testimony of those who have been in 
immediate contact with the situation, it has sometimes been 
true in our mission schools that Christianity has been less 
effectively taught than any other subject in the curriculum. Is 
that a tolerable situation? Suppose we reverse the situation? 


81 
Cease to make attendance at classes in Christianity compulsory, 
but make those classes second to none in the quality of the work 
offered and the ability of the teaching given, and what will be 
the result? Will students be more likely to be won to Christian- 
ity by being required to attend instruction of poor quality, or 
by being given the privilege of attending classes which are of 
the highest caliber of any work offered in the school? Do away 
with compulsion and substitute high quality, and I do not fear 
the results. 

Finally, I believe that we ought to be ready to make any 
adjustment whatever in order to achieve the fundamental pur- 
pose for which we are maintaining Christian education in China. 
I should like to go just a little farther than some who have 
spoken today. I hope the time will never come when we shall 
have to face the question of conducting schools in which no 
religion can be taught. But if we should have to face that ques- 
tion what would be our answer? My answer would be that I 
would stay in Chena; that I would stay and seek to express the 
Christian spirit by giving the most helpful service I could render 
to the Chinese, even if they refused to let me give them in 
words what they cannot and will not refuse me the opportunity 
of expressing in life. I would seek to bear testimony through 
a Christian life even though I were bound not to bear testimony 
through the Christian word. We must indeed not offer educa- 
tion that is not Christian. But we can make our education 
Christian by the spirit in which we conduct it, even if we are 
forbidden to give any direct Christian teaching. I, therefore, 
plead that we be ready to make any adjustments which may 
seem necessary, in order that we may continue to be able to 
make our contribution—as large a contribution as possible— 
_to the welfare of China. 

Dr. Brownell. We must raise the quality of teaching re- 
ligion. We must reach the men who are going to be the leaders. 
Instead of requiring the teaching of religion in all branches of 
our college in Canton, we should make it entirely optional. 
We should aim to reach those who are taking the liberal arts 
course and we should endeavor to attract the strongest men 
in the college to take the religious courses. 

The afternoon session was closed with prayer. 





82 

The evening sesston was held in the New England Room in 
the Prince George Hotel. 

Dr. Franklin: We do not wish to cut off the discussions 
as yet, but we wish to bring up one or two important questions 
before we begin to scatter. We are holding to the idea that 
this body cannot commit the boards to any action and have 
refrained from having formal findings. The Committee is of 
the opinion that it should assume responsibility for the editing 
of this day’s discussions and should also make a topical sum- 
mary of the discussions, including the documents that were 
circulated in advance of the conference, as far as it can repre- 
sent the attitude of the Conference where agreement has been 
apparent on the more important questions. The Committee 
desires to know if you want it to edit and prepare a topical 
summary along the lines as outlined. Is that your pleasure? 
Dr. Pinson moved that the Committee proceed as has been 
suggested. The motion was seconded and carried. 

We will now continue with the discussion as set forth in 
the syllabus. Please express yourselves on the questions under 
discussion when we adjourned under heading of Roman nu- 
meral III of the Syllabus: “What ought to be done?” We 
might profitably devote a little time on further concentration 
of our educational work and also on the question of conformity 
to the Chinese law in education and on other matters. Have 
you some other aspect of the questions you want to discuss 
first ? 

Dr. Armstrong of Canada: In one of the papers sent out 
there was a section referring to the Boxer Indemnity Fund. 
This is very pertinent to the question before us. I should like 
to have a statement in regard to the American attitude and 
the British attitude toward the return of the balance of these 
funds. The papers say the Chinese are very suspicious as to 
what may happen. 

Mr. Hawkins: I believe I can interpret the British attitude 
so far as the Missionary Societies are concerned. The English 
societies and some Scottish societies have decided that they 
will not make application for any money of the indemnity fund 
for the support of missionary education. This action has been 
passed by the societies and has been reported to the Conference 


83 


of missionary societies. We have had a further discussion in 
Edinburgh House about it, and some societies have gone some- 
what further and have said that even if the grants were offered 
to them they would not accept them except with the full ap- 
proval of their Chinese friends, and this they have made quite 
clear to the British Government. We are urging upon our 
government the desirability of appointing a Chinese repre- 
sentative on the commission which is to decide how the funds 
are to be used. Some one asked if this was known in China. 
Mr. Hawkins replied: I do not know just how far this is 
known in China. Information regarding these resolutions of 
the missionary societies has been sent out to China with in- 
structions that it be made known widely. 


Dr. Franklin: Wow about the attitude of the United States? 


Dr. Warnshuts: The attitude of the missionary societies in 
the United States with reference to the American share of the 
Boxer Indemnity Funds is easily explained. At the time of 
the remission of part of these funds in 1908, the Committee 
of Reference and Counsel deemed it inexpedient to take any 
steps to obtain any part of the funds for missionary work, 
or even to communicate to the government any expression of 
opinion concerning the use that might be made of these funds. 
It will be remembered, however, that the original suggestion 
that these Indemnity Funds should be remitted was made by 
Dr. A. H. Smith. But it was also emphasized that there 
should be no conditions attached to the return of the funds, 
the Chinese Government being left free to determine that 
question. 


During the discussions in recent years, regarding the return 
of the balance of the American share of the Indemnity, no 
further action has been taken by the Committee of Reference 
and Counsel. It was generally understood by the members of 
that Committee, and I think by all the American Missionary 
Boards working in China, that this was a question with which 
they as missionary organizations had no direct relation. During 
the public hearings on this subject before the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, several mis- 
sionaries were invited to testify. In doing so, they acted as 
private individuals, representing no organization, and _ their 


84 . 
unanimous opinion was in favor of the unconditional return 
of the funds to China. It was not suggested by any of them 
at that time, or, so far as I know, by anybody at any time, 
that any of these funds should be given in support of mis- 
sionary institutions. The opposite opinion, that missionary in- 
stitutions ought not to receive any aid from these funds, has 
often been expressed by many persons. 

The bill remitting the balance of the American share was 
finally passed in June, 1924, and became a law shortly after 
that. The preamble of this bill refers to the purpose of this 
remission as being “in order further to develop the educa- 
tional and other cultural activities in China,” but otherwise 
the return of the money is unconditional, and the House re- 
jected an amendment which would have made the phrase quoted 
above a provision attached to the substantive resolution. 

In response to this action of the United States Government, 
the Chinese Government has proposed the appointment of a 
Joint Commission, on which there will be five Americans and 
ten Chinese, who will be responsible for the administration of 
these funds, and will determine what use is to be made of them. 
This Commission will hold its first meeting in Peking next 
June. 

Dr. Franklin: Mr. Koo, will you please speak on this point 
from the standpoint of the Chinese on this question? 

Mr. T. Z. Koo: I think a great deal of misunderstanding, 
especially on the British portion of the Indemnity Fund was 
due largely to newspaper reports which went out putting the 
thing in such a way that the money would be devoted to sup- 
porting Anglo-Chinese institutions. As far as the Chinese 
national sentiment is concerned the fact that the money is re- 
turned as a gift to China would involve that that money ought 
to be used primarily as the Chinese want to use it. As far as 
Chinese Christian sentiment is concerned, we would undoubt- 
edly be in great favor of the action of the Societies as reported 
by Mr. Hawkins. I am very glad to learn that the British 
boards have taken that action. 

Dr. Franklin: We may now resume the discussion of the 
questions in our syllabus. Have you reached any definite con- 


85 
clusions in your own minds as to what we ought to do under 
certain conditions? | 

Mr. Hawkins: I would like to read two or three notes I have 
made while on the Atlantic coming to America: 

1. That we should warmly endorse the proposal of Dr. E. 
W. Wallace of the China Christian Educational Association set 
out on Page 7 of the January number of the Educational Review 
that careful statements should be prepared and widely circu- 
lated in China as to the aims, methods and achievements of 
Christian schools and colleges. 

2. That we should seek to conform as closely as possible 
to Chinese Government requirements as to the curricula of our 
schools and colleges as far as they do not directly conflict with 
the essential aim and purpose of our work and that we should 
willingly throw open our institutions to government inspec- 
tion. 

3. That we should strain every effort to make our educa- 
tional work more efficient and to make it superlatively good so 
that even non-Christian Chinese educators will realize that it 
cannot be dispensed with and that we should rigidly abstain 
from any appearance of rivalry with Government schools and 
colleges except in the direction of a noble emulation to make 
our schools and colleges highly efficient as educational institu- 
tions. 

4. That we should make every effort towards the progres- 
sive elimination of the foreign element in the administrative 
and educational staff of our schools and coileges and transfer 
them more and more to Chinese control and that we should 
steadfastly pursue the policy of associating them with the 
Chinese Christian Church rather than with a foreign missionary 
organization. 

5. That we should take into earnest consideration the ques- 
tion of not making attendance at Christian worship compulsory, 
but voluntary. The voluntary principle has already been adopted 
in many schools and colleges such as Tientsin Anglo-Chinese 
College, and the Shantung Christian University, with the result 
that the great majority of students, Christian and non-Christian, 
voluntarily attend religious worship. My fear is that compul- 
sory attendance at Christian worship may be made the occasion 


86 
for students’ strikes, in which event it may be extremely diffi- 
cult to yield to a demand enforced by a strike. It would in my 
judgment be infinitely wiser to make such a concession volun- 
tarily rather than be forced to make it by a strike of the students 
and I feel that our position would be infinitely stronger if we 


anticipated any such demand by voluntarily conceding it before 
hand. 


6. That we should make the present position widely and 
intelligently known to the members of our boards and seek 
their prayers and the prayers of the Christian Church for wise 
guidance in the crisis which faces us and the Christian Church 
in China. 


Dr. T. B. Ray: There are some things we ought to make 
quite clear to the Chinese. One is in connection with primary 
education. We ought to make the Chinese realize that the Mis- 
sion Boards do not think it is their business or responsibility 
to do the work that is ordinarily done by the common school. 
That is a Chinese responsibility and not ours. Some have 
thought we were eager to keep these primary-schools and 
therefore got the impression that we wanted to substitute for 
the common school work in China. We ought to make it per- 
fectly clear that the work we are doing in the lower educational 
realm is a passing phase and as soon as schools on the basis of 
our common school work can be turned over to the Chinese 
government let us be done with them. I know in some quarters 
there is quite a good deal of confusion on this. Let us take 
the stand for Christian education with all the generosity and 
patience we can. If the mission boards are going to run schools 
in China, they have got to be given the privilege of running 
them as Christian institutions. There can be no hesitation about 
that. There ought to be some firmness about our position on 
that question. A mission board cannot justify itself in run- 
ning a school unless it is run as a Christian school and con- 
nected with missionary propaganda. If not, then it is not the mis- 
sion board’s place to run it, and it may be given to educators to 
take care of it. If as mission boards we are going to conduct 
schools, we shall have to have the privilege of conducting 
them as religious institutions. There should not be any apology 
for that. I do not believe we are in China to apologize for being 


87 

Christian workers. If we cannot do this in a friendly, brotherly 
way as Christians and stand for the thing we believe in, then 
China cannot respect us any more than we are going to respect 
ourselves. These Christian scholars should be expected to be 
true and loyal. By the same token we cannot be expected to give 
them a scrambled religion. We are not going to patch up reli- 
gion. We cannot be expected to give a little smear of re- 
ligion. Some independent institutions, some union institutions, 
want to give them a scrambled religion. Let them do it, but 
when supported by Christian people in this country and people 
who believe in Christian schools, we ought to have a clear cut, 
brotherly, faithful religion. It should be pure Christianity. 
While we may be conducting schools with a message to the 
Chinese people, it is a spiritual message, not primarily an edu- 
cational message. As boards supported by Christian people, it 
is up to us to make every effort we can co deliver a spiritual 
message. If not clear cut on that there is no use of our being 
there. I believe that many of the problems that face us today 
would never have arisen if we had given the spiritual message 
as we should to the Chinese people. Let us think of how we 
are going to solve all these questions. Let us pray for guidance. 
I wonder if what we should not pray for is spirituality. I do 
not believe there is any danger whatever of our Christian propa- 
ganda being swept away. (Questions like these arise in every 
country where we have been trying to preach Christianity. 

I know too many Chinese men and women who know our 
motives and understand us too well. Our results have been alto- 
gether too great to be trampled upon. We are going to preach 
the spiritual message and we are going to preach it in China. 

Rev. Geo. T. Scott, Presbyterian Board: I agree largely 
with everything we have been discussing today, but there 
are two things on which we might differ and probably do 
differ. They are two big questions, the racial and religious 
questions. 

Regarding the racial or national questions, everyone wants 
to do everything they can to make Christian schools thoroughly 
Chinese. Regarding the support of these institutions we want 
to pass them over to the Chinese as soon as possible. We want 
to divide our responsibiltiies and to make authority commen- 


88 
surate with ability. The how and the when are the questions 
really at issue. 

Another issue in the religious sphere is a little more difficult. 
Something on which I hope we could all see more clearly is 
whether Christianity is more quickly and thoroughly promoted 
by voluntary worship than by required worship in an institu- 
tion. I should be happy to follow whichever way the Great 
Commission, in which we are enlisted, would be fulfilled most 
quickly. Required religion in the curriculum may be quite as 
important as required mathematics, physics, pure science, or 
philosophy, and yet others would believe that the voluntary 
method is the method to be pursued. Might we have some 
testimony from the institutions which have tested these two 
methods? I should like to hear the evidence as to the spiritual 
tone in the institutions and the results in propagating the 
Christian religion. 

Under this attack we ought to limit our front to our own 
Protestant educational system. Let us not defend now what 
does not belong to us. Charges about “denationalizing influ- 
ence” are not true about British-American schools. There are 
quite as many children in the schools in China supported by 
other foreigners than British and American. Let us consider 
and act upon those criticisms that apply to our schools only. 
Let us make our institutions as fine and as efficient as possible, 
—that is, truly Christian in motive and method. 

Dr. Armstrong: I believe that the summary given by Dr. 
North largely covers this matter and I want to add Prof. Lew’s 
opinion as to what we ought to do and what Christian educa- 
tion ought to do about the present opposition. He had a vision 
which might startle his hearers. He saw none of the lower 
schools in the hands of the Church twenty years from now. 
Does this mean that we are going to lose our opportunity? It 
is his vision to have a school of religion planted in every center 
and frankly teach religion and nothing else. There would be 
no pretense about it. There could be no possibility of making 
the charge that we were teaching religion by means of general 
education, but we would be frankly and effectively teaching the 
Christian religion itself. 

T. T. Ko, Canton Christian College: I think this conference 


89 
should centralize in a few points. I think the gentleman from 
across the Atlantic presented a very good summary. In addi- 
tion, I would like to add my thought and put you in our situ- 
ation. What do you fear? Suppose you are a student and you 
want to come to China, where our authority requires you to give 
your credentials. Then before the University has admitted 
you, you must have a passport, and before you can get a pass- 
port you have to wait for several months, then you appreciate 
what kind of feeling you would have if you are a Chinese stu- 
dent. This is part of the anti-Christian movement. If you are 
a merchant and want to export goods from China, you must 
pay customs duties up to 75%, but if we want to import goods 
from you, then we have a treaty and we cannot raise our tax 
more than 5%. Then you understand how the merchants in 
China feel about it. If you are a government official and there 
is something wrong in the government, the very minute we 
make some mistake foreign gunboats will be in our harbor; 
then you will appreciate the Chinese situation. If you are just 
a plain individual and something happens to be wrong, some- 
body killed or something like that, fi you are killed in China 
nothing is done, but if a Chinese is killed in this country, we 
demand thousands and thousands of dollars for redemption, 
then you realize how the Chinese public feels. I do not mind 
the wrong that has been done to China which is due largely to 
politicians. Let the past bury its past, but what we care for is 
to-do what we can now, even a little in this conference. I 
would like to suggest to some of the members of the conference 
that you should pass a resolution that in the event of another 
conference in Washington, you will signify your intention that 
you should have a revision of the treaty. A treaty or treaties 
that have done wrong to China should be changed. China is full 
_of bandits. China needs education and China needs missionaries, 
but you do not know that China needs the mighty dollar. Not 
from the hand of foreigners, but from her own right to fix 
her own taxes. We have unemployment, we have our labor 
problems, we have to work, but we have no jobs. Our indus- 
try is not developed, not because we are unwilling, but our in- 
dustry is not developed because we are not able. China is a 
dumping ground. But I think this is the essential thing, to 


90 

educate our missionaries that they should face this problem 
and face it squarely and not be afraid to ask whether we are 
right or wrong, but what are we going to do about it? Shall 
we make some move and suggest a resolution? The time has 
arrived when we shall face the difficulty, not because we are 
afraid of it, but we should understand and appreciate it if we 
face the difficulty we may solve something. I appreciate very 
much your intentions and good will to have this conference. 
By all means I hope this leads to a solution and that you gentle- 
men will bear this in mind. 

Miss Walton of Shansi suggested the hypothetical case of 
some one going from the West to China to study. We are sent 
out there to teach and not to learn. It was suggested to me 
before I went home on furlough that it might be a good thing 
if we sent students to the Orient. Ten thousand Oriental stu- 
dents come here to study and they come over to learn from us. 
The address by Dr. Burton suggested to me what our missionary 
attitude was. There has been too much of the give and take 
attitude, giving on the part of the teacher and taking on the 
part of the students. We have a give and take attitude. We 
were doing the giving by teaching and the Chinese were doing 
all the taking. It may be that some of us who are younger do 
not know very much about this problem and are unable to de- 
fine our Christian problem. In defining our educational prob- 
lem would it not be good if we were sent over to study and 
not to teach? 

Dr. Eric North: With reference to the matter of the atti- 
tude of the Christian constituency on extra-territorial rights and 
imperialism, would it not be possible for the Committee of Ref- 
erence and Counsel in cooperation with the Federal Council of 
the Churches of Christ in America and the National Christian 
Council in China to prepare a pamphlet of expressions of 
judgment, made either by the religious bodies or leaders in our 
Christian life, as to the attitude of the Christian Church in re- 
gard to international relations and expressed in terms of the 
relations between China and the United States. The objects 
of such a statement would be, first, to help to educate our own 
Christian constituency in this country, and second, to thwart 
inattention of inte!ligent leaders of America who really believe 
in gun boats. 


91 
How are we going to get something done in regard to many 
of these technical educational items? Certainly in most instances 
the first steps must be taken by the staff in China. 


Take the matter of concentration of the primary and second- 
ary schools, this primarily is a mission problem. If it be that 
the missions think the Boards are judging them by the number 
of pupils in the schools and by the number of schools, the 
Boards ought to disillusion them. That is unless it still be true 
that we are asking for statistics instead of quality. If so our 
measuring rods are faulty indeed. 


Again the matter of adherence to the government curriculum 
is entirely a field proposition. If it is not dealt with by the 
missions on the field the Boards cannot deal with it. 

Again in the case of our union colleges, so far as I know, 
it is entirely possible for the mission to elect Chinese to be on 
the local board of control. The Boards of Trustees often have 
the authority to withhold confirmation of some one named on 
the field, but as far as I know this has never been exercised in 
the case of any Chinese. Some Boards require a minimum 
number of Chinese, but so far as I know, it 1s still a minority. 


Again, as to the control of primary and secondary education 
appropriations, I do not know how it stands in other churches, 
but in my own church in the majority of instances there are 
more Chinese on the financial committees than there are mis- 
sionaries. On other committees a 50-50 relationship exists. 

Again the Boards might be able to stimulate a better Depart- 
ment of Chinese, but I wonder whether the field would not 
raise the question as to whether we were within our province. 

Again regarding the lifting of the requirements for com- 
pulsory attendance at chapel or religious services, in at least 
one university where these requirements have been removed, the 
question was never raised at this end of the line and probably 
never will be. Indeed, to a close student of the situation it 
becomes apparent that the reason why some institutions become 
Chinese more rapidly and others more slowly is less a matter 
of technical restrictions or defined policy and more a matter 
of the personal judgment and leaderships of those who direct 
the institutions. 


What are the things we can do at home? Our first and major 


92 

responsibility is in the selection of people to go out to China. 
How far do the candidate committees of mission boards ask 
whether a person going out is able to play second fiddle or able 
to take a position of secondary prominence in the work to which 
they are committed and test out their ability to be saints and 
servants? Are we doing all we can to apply in this connection, 
not intelligence tests but spiritual tests, of the staff we are 
selecting for our school work in China? 


Our second opportunity lies in our ability to increase the 
Chinese staff. Mission Boards are said to want to appoint 
Americans or British because they can raise their salaries so 
much more easily. Yet, so far as I know, in this country there 
has never been an instance wherein a Chinese member of the 
faculty was asked for and a missionary member supplied. I 
do not think that this phase of it is a very practical issue. The 
problem is rather whether we can, in connection with Boards 
of Trustees or Mission Boards, ask American or British con- 
stituencies to furnish funds for a Chinese staff. From such 
observation as I have been able to make I believe there is no 
real hindrance to this. - 

Finally, we must be ready to act promptly on recommenda- 
tions which come from the field, looking toward the larger par- 
ticipation and cooperation on the part of the Chinese and 
toward greater effectiveness in spiritual and religious education 
in our institutions. Promptness of action is of considerable 
moment, 

Dr, Luce: 1 think we should think about the gradual de- 
veloping of strong boards of managers for the universities on 
the field and let them study the problems that are before us 
today and take the necessary action. The main thing I got 
up to say and I[ think a large number of the topics of our sylla- 
bus would come back to this—two suggestions—. One has 
been mentioned by Chinese friends, and I think you will all 
agree with them, that in meeting these problems we have got to 
strengthen our faculties. We have got to train the Chinese 
members of the faculty, as we do the western men. I believe 
they are right who tell us frankly that the condition of our stay- 
ing there is having our work of a very high grade. The other 
idea leads us back to the United States. It is the financial prob- 


93 

lem. Ninety per cent. of the difficulty is here in America and is 
financial. At the present time men and women from China 
are trying to solve this financial problem. Out of twenty-seven 
years of my life I have had to devote nine years in this country 
on this financial problem. I think we would not have to face 
all these grave problems in China if the men and women of 
the Church at home would stand by us financially. We could 
face the difficulty with a smile if we were assured that from 
month to month and from year to year you would stand back 
of us in the task out there. 

Dr. Bovidle: Anyone who goes into and comes out of 
Shanghai feels the burden we have imposed upon the Chinese 
people regarding the tariff. I am not concerned with the his- 
tory of it or that they have lost their right, but I am simply im- 
pressed with the fact that it would be galling to a nation of 
American citizens to have customs tariffs of the country dic- 
tated from Peking. I have never felt badly in need of the 
gunboats myself. I rise to suggest first that statements made 
by the educational societies in China ought to be met with a 
counter statement from the Boards in America who characterize 
the Christian movement. 

I would just like to add one or two suggestions about the 
reply to these critics. You might call their attention to the fact 
that your mission schools in China sent out 7500 young men 
and young women who offered free service to help solve the 
illiteracy problem of China. They say we are denationalizing 
China. They forget that we are teaching the children to recog- 
nize the Chinese flag for the first time. One hundred thousand 
children did not know the Chinese flag. Now they are taught 
to salute it every morning and they have been taught how to 
make it in these mission schools. Here in New York we have 
boxes of little flags made by the Chinese boys and girls. The 
children are taught the significance of the Chinese flag. 

Dr. Warnshuis: A statement on behalf of the Christian forces 
is being prepared, not in America, but in China, by the Christian 
Educational Association and the National Christian Council. 

Mr. T. Z. Koo: Being somewhat of a practical nature, I 
would like to say something on that line. The topics taken up 
today fall naturally into two groups. 


94 

(1) Such topics as are ready for early action and—(2) 
Such topics as ought to be brought up for very early consider- 
ation. Of the points that are ready for early action I think I 
would like to group them as follows: 1. On the matter of 
policy let us say we are ready, | think, to go forward on the 
suggestion of concentration. 2. In the sphere of administra- 
tion such matters as local boards of control, more Chinese parti- 
cipation in the administrative and teaching staffs of colleges and 
universities. 3. Vocational emphasis in the curriculum. 4. 
The question of emphasis on the teaching of Chinese and con- 
formity to Government educational standards and regulations. 
Lastly, the question of Chinese support. 


The following topics seem to me to be worthy of very early 
consideration. 1. The whole group of topics coming under 
the heading of racial and political questions, such as treaty 
protection, extra-territorial rights, etc. 2. The status of reli- 
gious work to be done in our Christian schools. 

I feel if we group the topics in this manner perhaps we 
can help to make the issues a little clearer especially from the 
point of view of what we are ready to do at the present time. 


Several people have made the statement that we ought to 
draw up some kind of a reply to the anti-Christian propaganda 
that has arisen in various quarters in China. After hearing 
what Dr. Boville said in that connection, I would suggest that 
if you decide to issue such a statement it should be drawn up 
in China and by Chinese. 


Dr. Russell said: I do not believe that the statement of Dr. 
Timothy Lew is justified. It will be an unfortunate thing for 
China if, within a ten year period, private education will 
to exist. While France is still holding strongly to the 
nationalistic concept, it is not the tendency found today in most 
other countries. The value of the private school as a variant, 
as a gateway for new ideas, as a form of experimentation, is 
gaining increasing recognition even in Japan. I do not. expect 
less private education in China. I expect more. It will be 
better for the government schools. It will stimulate them. It 
will prevent deadly and dull uniformity. I take exception to 
the point made by Dr. Ray. I appreciate the spiritual and its 
need. We should pray for that. But I also value knowledge 


95, 

and pray for that. A physician may have the finest spirit but 
I nevertheless wish him to know the difference between Paris 
Green and paregoric. So it is with the teacher. The fault has 
not been teacher training. Rather it has been no training at 
all. I further wish to comment on the fear of American and 
British educators indoctrinating their pupils. This neither 
nation has ever been able to do. The most signal illustration 
of this is the American failure to change the Philippine people 
into patriotic Americans. We taught them, but did not in- 
doctrinate them. ) 

Miss Jean Dickinson suggested and urged the strengthening 
of religious education in Christian schools. We believe that 
even a high school or college graduate cannot be a good teacher 
of mathematics without being specially trained, but we seem 
to think any Christian is good enough to teach religion. We 
must have teachers who have had special technical training in 
this line for our religious teachers in China. At the present 
time there is but a handful of teachers of religious education 
and we should urge that that department should be one of the 
most constructive and strongest. What we have to do is not 
to force religion down their throats but to show them that the 
religion we teach is that which they want. 

Dr. Watson suggested that it would be very much to the 
point if the missions doing work in China knew what propor- 
tion of money is going into the work of the Chinese staff and 
what is going into the foreign staff. 

Mrs. Thurston suggested the elimination of the word “com- 
pulsion” with reference to religious instruction. The situation 
in the women’s colleges is different than in the men’s because 
of the larger proportion of Christian students. Institutions 
depending upon compulsory methods and making such compul- 
sion very prominent do not make for a religious atmosphere. 
It seems to me that there are acceptable methods by which an 
institution can require of its students certain duties. It would 
be a mistake to entirely abandon the daily worship or to omit 
that measure of religious instruction in the curriculum that 
from the cultural standpoint will give a basis of understanding 
of the Christianity which the Chinese so often want to under- 
stand, Another urgent necessity in connection with our reli- 


96 

gious work is the provision of an adequate staff. The waste 
of personality in our Christian education in China is very seri- 
ous. We are challenged to do something more through the 
quality of our personal work than would be done in the chapel ; 
in other words, to influence students by what we are. Most of 
us are loaded down so far that we have not the spiritual energy 
to do that spiritual work and except as God may help us to be 
patient, under the strain of two or three times the normal work 
we are doing, we just have not the spiritual energy to do it. 

Still another thing, one of the chief causes for the feeling 
against us is due in a large measure to the appeal for missionary 
work in China that is based on what I call the lower motive, 
which is not fair to China and which misrepresents China. It 
seems we ought to have a stronger appeal for our work if our 
purpose could definitely be to work with our Chinese brothers 
and sisters. If we can prove to China that with sympathy and 
appreciation, we will work with them in efforts to establish the 
Kingdom of Christ, we will remove one of the chief causes of 
the anti-Christian spirit in China. 


Dr. Weir asked for a definition of religious education. He 
suggested that relizious education is a great deal more chan 
the teaching of the Scriptures and doctrinal teaching of the 
Christian Church. Such teaching is one element, but is by 
no means the whole of it, nor the most important part of it. 
Many references had been made to the influence of lives and 
influence of atmosphere, but he thought it is more even than 
that. Whatever subject is taught, whether it is the so-called 
secular subject or not, the difference is whether the teacher is 
Christian or not. He believed Christian education involves the 
teaching of all subjects from a Christian angle. That is the 
essential and important point to consider when dealing with 
these questions of compulsory education. We are only consid- 
ering compulsion on the more ecclesiastical side of religion 
and essential as such teaching is, we can in our Christian schools 
give a Christian education with a very small amount of oppo- 
sition if we do not include the ecclesiastical element when we 
speak of compulsory Christian education. Compulsory religious 
education is quite unnecessary and is often extremely undesir- 
able and may defeat itself. We shall be acting much more 


97 
wisely if we should consider how we are to proceed in order 
to permeate the whole of our, education with the spirit of 
Christ. 

Mr. Fahs: Two rather important aspects of the whole prob- 
lem have not been touched upon. First is the financial problem. 
It is a fact, I believe, that no available sources give us an inti- 
mation of what investments of missionary money are being 
made in China by the rest of the world. We do not. know what 
money is going into India or into other mission lands. No 
beginning has been made on the part of the mission forces to 
keep a ledger account by countries which will show the total 
amount being disbursed on behalf of each. Secondly, our sup- 
porting constituencies in the United States, by and large, are 
unaware of .the complexity, the size and the outreach of the 
problems we are dealing with in China and these other coun- 
tries. We must raise money at home for foreign mission work 
and we have essentially uninformed constituencies, so in order 
to create interest we are turned back on motives and methods 
of presentation which all too often lack reality because our 
people cannot easily sense the problems we are dealing with. 


Miss Wild: There is certainly something the matter with 
our teaching of religion and the Bible when we hear the testi- 
mony which comes from those who know the situation in China. 
The boys and girls hardly know the Bible because they are 
taught so poorly by the people who are in the middle schools. 
One of my students told me that in the course of her studies 
in the primary, middle and college courses, she had had the 
Book of Acts three times and that she hated it worse each time. 
There is something the matter with-our teaching of religion. 
We need maps and such things in teaching the Bible and for a 
Biblical background. There surely is something the matter 
if we are sending over teachers of the Bible who do not match 
up with teachers of agriculture, etc. 

Dr. Gowdy: I have been asking myself this evening what 
impression I would have of this Conference if I had never been 
in China. I should probably think that every missionary school 
was the poorest possible type and that no missionary school 
taught religion in a satisfactory way. I was in charge of a 
middle school for twenty-one years in China and had a large 


98 
staff. About two thirds were Chinese and one-third Amer- 
icans. Every American teacher before returning home on fur- 
lough always consulted with his colleagues regarding the lines 
of study that he might take up while at home. We had a faculty 
such as very few schools have in religion or any other subject. 
I have just come to the place where I am in one of the Union 
Universities and I find all the men on our staff as capable as 
men on the staffs here and they also all follow the same policy 
regarding study at home during their furlough in order to main- 
tain the highest educational standards. I recently found an- 
other man to go out to be in charge of the department of re- 
ligious education. He has studied in Edinburgh as well as in 
American universities, and is highly qualified for the work he 
will undertake. I agree with Mrs. Thurston and believe we 
should find some way about financing these institutions without 
our having to leave them to come to raise funds. Moreover, it 
should certainly be our aim to make ourselves dispensable as 


soon as possible to the Chinese. 

Dr. Fitch: Many of the suggestions made today have been 
adopted in China. We try to bring our curriculum into con- 
formity with the Chinese government and to increase the 
Chinese membership in administration. I have had this experi- 
ence in the teaching of English as contrasted with the teaching 
of Chinese. The boys take our work heavily in English but 
after they have graduated, they blame our college for not 
having given them more Chinese. If we had not had com- 
pulsory courses in Chinese language and literature at the time, 
very few of the Chinese boys would have taken Chinese be- 
cause we had able and interesting instructors of English, and 
the students prefer the economic and social advantages obtained 
by a knowledge of English rather than study their own lan- 
guage. That was the way the boys of China were inclined in 
general. Regarding chapel service, two experiences are in 
my mind. In Ningpo I had a non-compulsory exercise where 
all the boys attended without exception; in Hangchow we 
require attendance at chapel exercises. In our Christian 
schools we should have a certain amount of required religious 
instruction and chapel exercise, but if we ever find there is an 
attitude of hostility toward religious or chapel exercise we 


99 
should find out what is the trouble and the cause of it and by 
tact and sympathy bring about an understanding and revise 
or alter our work so students may wish to come without being 
forced. In our college during the last twenty-five years half 
our boys have come from non-Christian homes and we have 
hardly graduated a boy who was not a Christian. 

Mr. Koo: May I add to what Dr. Fitch has said with regard 
to the attitude of parents and others to Christian schools in 
China, that we should be slow to generalize on this question 
from our experiences of ten or even five years ago. The pro- 
nounced objection to Christian education has only come com- 
paratively recently and I think it would be more correct to 
face this situation as a new situation and with an open mind. 


Dr. Warnshuis: There are two simple but practical things 
that I think we must not forget as we close this discussion. 
The first is that the more adequate financing of our Christian 
colleges and universities depends very much upon the better 
coordination of them, and the greatest possible concentration of 
our educational work, including elementary and middle schools. 
The available financial resources and the number of qualified 
Chinese and missionary educationists are not unlimited, and it 
will not be possible to maintain the higher standards and the 
better quality of our educational work that is necessary unless 
we recognize these facts as an inescapable limitation upon the 
quantity of work undertaken. Moreover, by combining our 
appeals to the Christian Churches of the West and by showing 
that they are correlated parts of a unified program of Christian 
education for the whole of China from which all rivalries and 
duplication of work has been eliminated, we shall greatly 
strengthen these appeals and secure the largest possible sup- 
port. 

Secondly, we ought to make sure that there is no evasion of 
responsibility either on the part of the missions in China or of 
the Boards in the West. We have agreed upon a number of 
advance steps that ought to be taken without delay. It will 
be very unfortunate if the initiative in taking these steps is 
referred by everybody to some other person or organization 
than themselves. Would it not be well if the Boards would 
at once consider what are the measures which they can adopt, 


100 

and then without delay act as they think is best, at the time 
indicating those other measures which they believe should de- 
pend upon the initiative of the missions? Similarly the mis- 
sions should accept the responsibilities that are clearly theirs, 
and at the same time call upon the Boards for any action that 
must necessarily be taken by them. This Conference should 
not end in simply talking about the things that ought to be 
done, but it should result in definite action both here and in 
China. 


The Chairman, in a few closing words, expressing his appre- 
ciation of the discussions of the day as being both illuminating 
and dynamic, declared that the time of adjournment had come, 
and the Conference was closed with prayer led by Dr. Pinson. 


101 


COMMITTEE’S SUMMARY OF CONFERENCE 
OPINION 


The undersigned Committee was asked by the Conference 
to prepare a topical summary of the discussions which took 
place, thus suggesting the lines of action which the Conference 
was apparently agreed upon. No findings were adopted by 
the Conference. 

The points mentioned are simply those that the Committee 
feel ‘represent the consensus of the expressed opinion of the 
Conference, as indicated in the foregoing report of the discus- 
sions. Effectiveness can be given to them only as they are 
put into operation by those who are responsible. 

The importance of early, but not hasty, action was urged 
repeatedly. This requires alertness in understanding the situ- 
ation and sympathetic endeavors to meet it. It becomes appar- 
ent that the time has come for the Christian forces to give 
clear evidence of the sincerity of their expressions of purpose 
to make Christianity and Christian institutions indigenous in 
China. 


I. Responsibilities of Missionaries in China 

a. To increase continually the amount of responsi- 
bility placed in Chinese hands, both in teaching 
and in administration. 

b. To link the Christian schools more closely with 
the Christian churches. 

c. To cultivate persistently Chinese sources for the 
support of Christian education. 

d. To make schools and courses more vocational in 
character, and adapted more fully to the needs 
of Chinese life. 

e. To strengthen the courses of study in the Chinese 
language and literature with a genuine apprecia- 
tion of Chinese history and culture. 

f. To seek Government registration or recognition of 
Christian schools if this can be done without im- 
perilling the Christian character of their work. 


102 

g. To bring about a very decided increase in the 
quality of religious instruction with a clear fac- 
ing of the wisdom of making it compulsory. 

h. To circulate clear statements interpreting the pur- 
pose and work of Christian educational institutions. 

Il. Responsibilities of Mission Boards 

a. To make their position and attitude on the prob- 
lems mentioned above entirely clear to their mis- 
sionaries, indicating where responsibility for their 
accomplishment rests. 

b. To show a greater readiness to transfer the con- 
trol of Christian work to the Chinese church, 
recognizing that this involves the giving of 
responsibility to the Chinese in the formulation of 
policies and the administration of funds both from 
foreign and Chinese sources. 

c. To send out missionaries whose spirit and attitude 
will enable them to cooperate with the Chinese in 
carrying out such a program. 

d. To emphasize the desirability of quality in edu- 
cational work of all grades even though this may 
involve reduction in the number of schools. 


III. Coordination and Concentration of Educational Work 

a. Early organization in North America of the 

permanent committee for the coordination and 
promotion of Chinese higher education. 

b. Careful study in China of the most effective use 
of all available resources in educational work 
looking toward concentration and better quality 
in both lower and higher grades. 

IV. Treaty Rights 

As to whether missionaries should invoke special treaty 
protection and extra-territorial privileges not reciprocated to 
Chinese in the homelands of the missionaries is a question 
about which there is some difference of opinion, but it would 
seem to be a matter that should have. the early consideraticn 
of the Mission Boards whether any procedure is possible or 
advisable by which the missionary enterprise will be freed of 
some of the political implications of present treaties. 


103 
Concluston. 


The mission institutions and the missionaries’ lives are free 
gifts of Christian love to the Chinese people and represent a 
concrete and living expression of the Christian message. Our 
concern is not to transplant Western ideas or institutions into 
China, but to plant Christ’s Gospel in the hearts of the Chinese 
people and give them every help in bringing it to a natural 
fruitage in their own lives. 

To attain this end, we must be prepared to adventure greatly 
in placing responsibility on Chinese workers, confident in the 
power of the Holy Spirit to find full expression in the lives 
and genius of the Chinese people, although this may seem to 
involve temporary loss of efficiency and even of character, as 
viewed through our Western eyes and as compared with 
Western organization. 

It is part of our obligation to place the burden for this 
development squarely on Chinese shoulders. 


J. H. Frank iin, 
JAMES ENDICOTT, 
MARGARET E. Hopce, 
LESLIE B. Moss, 
Eric M. Nortu, 
GEoRGE T. Scott, 

A. L. WaRNSHUIS. 


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See 


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i aie 
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sase 
sea 


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th can i i ei! t 
} tee ile He { 
i a nara Beet “1 


ne Haun 
i 


Sees: 


= 


See 


peat 


i. 


sa, 
i inh 


fh i} tid Be iat einai Pane 

i ip tS shige ats oe beat: te ele S04 Ri 

ieee ance Met ee bane cigar dia 

atest aire Raat ted NANFA erD ete tat 
eas Ea 

ah 


Be HOR Buta Ry 
 . 
ugh: 
i Het 


Waits 


OnTx 





